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STATEMENT OF FACTS, 



f 



Whittingham aud Rowland, Printers, GosweU-street, Loadon. 



PLAIN STATEMENT 



OF 



FACTS, 



RELATIVE TO 



SIR EYRE COOTE: 



CONTAINING 

THE OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE AND DOCUMENTS 
CONNECTED WITH HIS CASE; 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE MILITARY BOARD 

APPOINTED FOR ITS IN.VESTIGATION . 



LONDON: 
PRINTED FOR SHERWOOD, NEELY, AND JONES, 

PATERNOSTER ROW. 



1816. 



^ 



WA 






^^ 









THE 

CASE 

OF 

SIR EYRE COOTE. 



A RECENT and extraordinary exercise of the 
prerogative of the Crown, in the case of General 
Sir Eyre Coote, K.B. and K.C. depriving 
that distinguished officer of his military rank, 
in the decline of a life devoted from the age of 
fourteen to the service of his country, having 
in an extreme degree added confidence to the 
cruel and unfounded reports highly injurious to 
his character and happiness, which have been 
widely and industriously circulated "^ ; it is 

* The following paragraph appeared in the Morning Post 
of 27th May, and was from that copied into several other 
papers. — 

** Degradation of a Person in High Life. — Among the 
extraordinary and unprecedented occurrences, happening in 

B 



6 

conceived to be due no less to his family, who 
must feel most deeply affected by the disgrace- 
ful insinuations which have been promulged 
against him, than to Sir Eyre Coote himself, to 
repel the injustice by a plain statement of all 
the facts and evidence which are connected 
with this, in every point of view, most impor- 
tant and most distressing case. 

In doing this, no attempt will be made to 
influence the public mind by artful or abstruse 
reasoning : such an attempt is wholly unneces- 
sary where justice alone is sought for, and 
would be useless where a discerning public is 
to be the judge. In the case of Sir Eyre 
Coote, there is nothing to conceal ; and the only 



these eventful times, may be enumerated the degradatioB 
which an officer of exalted rank experienced, not long since, 
for dishonourable conduct proved at the bar of public 
opinion, as well as of that of justice. To our greet sur- 
prise, we now learn, that another distinguished officer (whose 
name has been continually before our eyes in print) is shortly 
to be publicly disgraced — he is to be stripped of all his 
honours — and his name struck out of the Army List. The 
judicial exposition of the offending party is abandoned, 
the necessary proofs being wanting; but enough is known to 
justify the conduct of the higher powers, and at the same 
time to demonstrate, that neither titles nor riches can screen 
offenders from merited punishment. The reported nature of 
the present offence we must decline stating." 



danger to his reputation is, that the truth may 
not be circulated as extensively as the false 
reports with which his character has been 
assailed. 

The object of this publication is simply to 
enable every individual, into whose hands it 
may fall, to form his own free, unbiassed judg- 
ment; and a coniident hope is entertained, that 
when a knowledge of the whole truth shall 
have removed the prejudice naturally excited 
by uncontradicted falsehood, Sir Eyre Coote 
will receive that justice from the public, to 
which an upright and honourable character so 
amply entitles him, and which the following 
documents show him to have already found in 
the opinions of those best acquainted with his 
virtues and infirmities. 

To contemplate the weaknesses to which the 
greatest and best of men are occasionally sub- 
ject, is always a painful task ; and many will 
feel, on the perusal of these pages, how dread- 
ful must be the necessity which compels the 
present exposure, as the only means of vin- 
dicating from a suspicion of the most foul 
description of criminality, the character of a 
soldier, whose blood has been shed in the field, 



and whose glorious deeds in arms have fre- 
quently merited and received, through parlia- 
ment, the thanks of his country. 

The papers novr submitted to the public, 
consist of the evidence taken at the Mansion 
House, by order of the Commander in Chief, 
in consequence of certain rumours which had 
reached his Royal Highness respecting the 
conduct of Sir Eyre Coote, in visits made by 
him to Christ's Hospital; together with the 
w^hole of the correspondence which took place 
between the department of the Commander in 
Chief and the Right Honourable Colonel Bag- 
well, brother-in-law of Sir Eyre Coote, as the 
medium of communication between that de- 
partment and the General's friends. 

Considerations of delicacy alone towards Sir 
Eyre Coote's family, prevent the publication of 
several of the documents which it was deemed, 
by his friends, expedient to lay before the Duke 
of York, in explanation and extenuation of the 
acts of folly acknowledged to have been com- 
mitted. It is felt, that the omission of evidence 
so important may be prejudicial to Sir Eyre 
Coote; but it will appear the less so, from a 
distinct acknowledgment, in the final report of 



9 

the General Officers to whom the papers were 
referred, that they contained "Ample testi- 
mony OF VERY ECCENTRIC AND INCOHERENT 
CONDUCT, AMOUNTING PERHAPS TO DERANGE- 
MENT OF MIND." An acknowledgment, slightly 
qualified by the word perhaps, of the very fact 
which the papers were intended to prove. 

The documents are accompanied by such 
notes as appear necessary to show their con- 
nexion, and to direct the reader's attention to 
particular points. 

In order that the whole of the case may be 
clearly understood, it is necessary to premise, 
that for many years Sir Eyre Coote has been 
subject to occasional aberrations of mind, which 
have been observed by his friends to lead to the 
most extraordinary eccentricities of conduct. 

These eccentricities being perfectly inno- 
cent, and not likely to produce injurious con- 
sequences either to himself or others, were 
viewed without serious alarm by his friends; 
yet they were of such a nature, as to leave on 
the minds of many the painful conviction that 
they were the effects of temporary derange- 
ment. 



10 

At the period when the transactions took 
place, which occasion this unhappy exposition, 
the spirits of Sir Eyre Coote had been most 
painfully depressed by the severest domestic 
calamities ; tlie recent death of two most amia- 
ble daughters, and the dangerous illness of the 
third and only remaining one: and his own 
mind, which had been visibly affected by fevers 
nearly fatal, produced by too much exertion 
and exposure to the sun in the performance of 
his duties in the West Indies, exhibited a me- 
lancholy proof of the additional effect of anxiety 
and distress. 

On Saturday, the 25th of November last. Sir 
Eyre Coote was found in the Mathematical 
School at Christ's Hospital, under the circum- 
stances stated in the evidence, and taken before 
the Lord Mayor, on a charge of improper and 
indecent conduct in the school. As time for 
further inquiry was necessary, he was allowed 
to depart, on his promising to appear at the 
Mansion House on the following Monday, to 
meet such charges as might be preferred against 
him. 

In the mean time the most minute investiga- 
tion took place of all the circumstances con- 



11 

nected with the charge; and on Sir Eyre 
Coote's re-appearance at the Mansion House 
on the Monday, it having been satisfactorily 
proved to the Lord Mayor, as well as to Sir 
William Curtis and Mr. Corp, the President 
and Chief Clerk of Christ's Hospital, who from 
their connexion with the school, were more 
particularly the guardians of its morals, that, 
though an act of egregious folly had been com- 
mitted, there was not the slightest ground for 
supposing it to have proceeded from any vicious 
or criminal intention or propensity; the Lord 
Mayor, in his judicial capacity, with that dis- 
criminating justice which peculiarly belongs to 
his honourable character, observing the diseased 
state of Sir Eyre Coote's mind, and fully im- 
pressed with a conviction of his innocence, dis- 
missed the case altogether. 

Upon such dismissal, it was suggested by Sir 
William Curtis, President of the Hospital, that 
as Sir Eyre Coote acknowledged himself to 
have committed an act of great folly and im- 
propriety, he ought to atone for it by making a 
present to the institution ; and a thousand 
pounds was named as a proper sum. This 
proposal was objected to in the strongest man- 
ner by Sir Eyre Coote, on the supposition that 



12 

it might have the appearance of money given as 
a compromise ; but on its being represented to 
him, that as the case had been already formally 
dismissed by the Lord Mayor, a gift could not 
be supposed to proceed from any improper 
motive; and as the one in question w^as cer- 
tainly not considered as a compromise, he 
reluctantly acquiesced, and gave his draught 
for the money ^. 

It was natural to hope, that after a decision 
by the highest authority, founded on a full in- 
vestigation, this unfortunate transaction, the 
publicity of which must necessarily lead to a 
disclosure of mental infirmities, and the most 
distressing afflictions with which an amiable and 
highly respectable family could be visited, 
would remain unknown, except to a few: it 
appeared, however, after a lapse of several 
months, that so much had transpired as to make 
it the subject of general conversation ; but the 
facts being unknown, insinuations of a most 
disgraceful nature supplied their place. Some 
of the reports in circulation having reached the 



* The money was subsequently returned by a Committee 
of the Governors of the Hospital, as having been improperly 
demanded. 



13 

ears of Mr. Corp, Chief Clerk to Christ's Hos- 
pital, that gentleman, who had taken an active 
part in the investigation when the case was 
before the Lord Mayor, thought it an act of 
justice to state fully his sentiments on the sub- 
ject; and on the 27th of March, addressed the 
following letter to Sir Eyre Coote. 

" I cannot well reconcile to my feelings, Sir Eyre, tfie 
circumstance of your departure from tliis country, how-* 
ever short, without adverting to the origin of our acquaint^ 
ance, and to state without reserve my sentiments touching 
the subsequent anxiety yourself and friends have been 
compelled to encounter, in consequence of the injunction 
imposed upon you in the earliest stage of the transaction ; 
I say imposed upon you, because it originated not with 
yourself, and because you cheerfully acquiesced in the 
same, as an atonement for your unguarded folly ; and one 
would have hoped, after the full investigation of all its 
bearings by so able and sensible a person as the Chief 
Magistrate, the transaction would have been permitted to 
rest ; and 1 am persuaded it would So have been, if no 
pecuniary consideration had been contemplated. 

" From the knowledge I possess of the integrity of the 
Managers of our much valued institution, and the virtue 
which is embraced within its walls, I had no hesitation 
whatever in pronouncing upon the impropriety of enter- 
taining even the idea of such a stipulation ; and my judg- 
ment (founded on forty years experience), from what has 

€ 



14 

subsequently' transpired, has most unequivoeally been 
coiiiirmed. Frora the situation which 1 hold, and the 
comprehensive charge my office embraces, my most im- 
portant duty rests on die keeping a vigilant eye over the 
general good of the house, and guarding, to the utmost of 
my ability and judgment, against any injury its reputation 
may on any occasion be exposed to. 

"The inadvertence which occurred near five months 
since, though by no means at all criminal, was of such a 
nature as to stand in need of deliberate investigation; and 
I take upon myself to pronounce to tlie whole world, that 
no pains were omitted to get possession of every fact, and 
that upon the most scrupulous examination, nothing could 
be traced beyond an act of unguarded folly : therefore, 
for the reputation of the institution which protected me 
in my juvenile days, and which for so many years in man- 
hood I have been entrusted to watch over^ I was persuaded 
that a total dismission of the subject was the best possible 
hne to be adopted ; and here too my judgment was sanc- 
tioned by the concurrence of one possessing the experience 
of the Chief Magistrate of the City of London. 

*^ Knowing as I do every minutiae from its origin to the 
present time, and from the full conviction that nothing has 
been omitted in its investigation, I have thought it a piece 
of justice you are entitled to, for you to possess these my 
full sentiments hereon. After forty years active service 
here, a few^ more only can be left for me : those past have 
been expended to the best .of my judgment, and those 
which remain, the Almighty, I am confident, will not per- 
mit me to tarnish. 



15 

" Hoping, Sir Eyre, you will receive 4;his letter, as (.oii- 
tainiiig, in the event of accident to me, my sincere senti- 
ments, and as conveying my best wishes for your future 
peace of mind and happiness, 

" I remain, 

" With every feeling of respect, 

" Your faithful, humble Servant, 

(Signed) "RICHARD CORP. 

" Ckrisrs Hospital, Blarch t7, 1816. 

" To Sir Eyre Cooter 

The affair having at length assumed a most 
serious aspect, from the various ways in which 
different persons had exaggerated the few facts 
that had transpired, his Royal Highness the 
Duke of York thought it proper. to make in- 
quiry into the circumstances which had given 
I'ise to reports so strongly affecting the character 
of Sir Eyre Coote ; and on application to the 
Lord Mayor for copies of the Minutes of Evi- 
dence, taken when the charge was before his 
Lordship, received the following letter*: 

* The copy of this Letter was furnished by the Lord 
Mayor, at the request of Sir Eyre Coote's friends, it having 
been refused by the Commander in Chief. 






16 

(COPY.) 

To His Royal Highness the Duke of York and Albany , 
Commander in Chief, Sfc. 3)C. S^x. 

SIR, 

In compliaace with your Royal Highness's commands, 
I hasten to state what took place before me m my judicial 
capacity, touching the conduct and affecting the character 
of Lieut. Gen. Sir Eyre Coote; of which, however, no 
minutes were taken. 

On the €5th day of November last, Mr. Corp, Chief 
Clerk of Christ's Hospital, waited upon me, and said that 
Lieut. Gen. Sir Eyre Coote had gone into the Mathema- 
tical School and conversed improperly with the boys, — 
asking them whether they liked flogging, and telling them 
they might flog him : and that for this extraordinary con^ 
duct, the Lieut. Gen. was taken by the Porter of the 
J^odge to the City Compter. 

Mr. Corp then added, that he had made strict inquiry 
of all the boys, and all other persons m ho saw and heard 
the Lieut. Gen. in the Mathematical School, and the 
result was, that he could not attach any criminal conduct 
to the Lieut. Gen. — the most that could be made of it 
was egregious folly. The Lieut. Gen. told the bojs who 
he was. Sir James Shawe and Mr. Robarts afterwards 
waited upon me, and the latter gentleman becoming per- 
sonally responsible for the appearance of the Lieut. Gen, 



17 

before me on Monday morning, llie J^icut. Gen. was 
liberated. 

On Monday the Lieut. Gen. did appear before me, 
and being interrogated, declared, with considerable agita- 
tion, that he had not taken any improper liberties v\ ith the 
boys, save in the indulgence of frivolous conversation, of 
which he was heartily ashamed. Now, as the Lieut. 
Gcn.'s account of his conduct did not materially vary 
from Mr. Corp's statement, 1 concluded that by conceal- 
ment of all the circumstances as far as laid within my 
power, I should, upon the whole, best consult the interest 
of the Hospital, the honour and dignity of the army, and 
the public feeling. I reflected that the Lieut. Gen. had 
frequently distinguished himself in the service of his 
country, and was connected with an amiable family; and 
that, under such circumstances, to expose mere folly, 
would be an act of severity, where tenderness and forbear- 
ance would be more becoming. — I have only to add, for 
your Royal Highness's information, that, on its being sug- 
gested that the Lieut. Gen. should be made to feel the 
impropriety of his conduct by a mulct of a thousand 
pounds, to be paid the Treasurer for th'e benefit of the 
Institution, it was objected to immediately by Sir Eyre 
Coote, if it were to be considered as a compromise ; but 
upon being assured it was not so considered, the Lieut. 
Gen. gave a draft for a thousand pounds, which was sent 
in an anonymous letter to the Treasurer, and I understand 
has been returned by the Committee of Almoners, on 
their learning from what source it came. — These are all 
the circumstances that I now recollect; but if your 



18 

Royal Highness wishes to see me on the subject, I shall 
be ready, at any time, to attend to your Royal Highness's 
commands. 

I have the honour to be, 

Your Royal Highness's 

Most obedient and very humble servant, 

^(Signed) MATTHEW WOOD, Mayor. 

Mansion HousCj April iOth, 1816. 

This letter led to a personal interview with 
the Commander in Chief; in which the Lord 
Mayor explained verbally such particulars as 
he had, from a feeling of delicacy, but slightly 
noticed in writing. 

Neither the complete acquittal of all crimi- 
nality contained in the Lord Mayor's letter, 
nor the reasons so forcibly urged by his Lord- 
ship against the further exposure of an act of 
"mere folly," could prevent measures which 
appear to have been already determined upon. 
On the 18th of April, therefore, a Lieutenant- 
General and two Major-Generals^ met at the 

* It is submitted to the consideration of military men, 
whether, if it was thought necessary that the conduct of an 



19 

Mansion House, by order of his Royal High- 
ness the Duke of York, and proceeded to a 
fresh inquiry into all the circumstances con- 
nected with a charge which, nearly five months 
before, had been fully investigated and dis- 
missed by the Chief Magistrate of the City of 
London. 

When the examination was finished, the Lord 
Mayor, who had been present, stated to the 
General Officers that nothing further had arisen 
from the examination than what was already 
known to him ; and that he had been induced to 
dismiss the matter when formerly before him, 
it not appearing that there was any ground for 
suspecting any thing vicious or criminal. 

The friends of Sir Eyre Coote not having 
received any previous intimation whatsoever of 
the appointment of this Board for the investiga- 
tion of his case, no one had an opportunity of 
attending it on his behalf, and consequently no 
cross-examination took place; the evidence, if 

old general should be investigated by a Military Board, that 
Board should not have been composed of a number of offi- 
cers, some of them at least of his own rank (that of General), 
and not confined to three of inferior rank, a Lieutenant- 
General, and two Mhj or- Generals. 



20 

such it can be called, was the loose and uncon- 
nected declarations of" children. But on its 
coming to their knowledge that such investiga- 
tion had actually taken place, Colonel Bagwell, 
on their part, solicited and obtained an inter- 
view with the Duke of York; in which he 
explained to his Royal Highness the melan- 
choly state of Sir Eyre Coote's mind, and the 
perfect conviction felt by all who knew him, 
that his extraordinary conduct had proceeded 
from temporary insanity ; a misfortune which 
was known to exist in his family to a consider- 
able extent. He also acquainted his Royal 
Highness, that many of Sir Eyre Coote's friends^ 
were ready to come forward and testify to this 
fact, as well as to their having, at various times^ 
observed in his (Sir Eyre's) manner that which 
they could impute to no other cause than mental 
derangement. 

His Royal Highness assured Colonel Bag- 
well, that no further step should be taken in 
the case of Sir Eyre Coote, without his 
(Colonel B's) being previously informed of it. 
This interview^ took place on Saturday, the 20tb 
of April, and on the 22d Colonel Bagwell re- 
ceived a letter from the Commander in Chief, 
accompanied by a copy of the Examination 



21 

taken at the Mansion House on the preceding 
Thursday. 

As by His Royal Highness's letter, Colonel 
Bagwell was called upon to furnish such ob- 
servations as Sir Eyre Coote, or his friends, 
might have to offer on his case, they proceeded 
immediately to collect such documents as the 
shortness of the time* allowed them would 
permit : and in the short space of one fortnight 
collected and transmitted to the Commander in 
Chief, a mass of evidence containing the testi- 
mony of between sixty and seventy persons, 
including many noblemen and members of the 
legislature, who declared their knowledge of 
Sir Eyre Coote's infirmities, and their firm be- 
lief, that insanity alone had led to the acts 
of folly detailed in the copy of the Examina- 
tion. 



* Sir Henry Torfens, in his letter of the 24th May, states, 
in answer to Colonel Bagwell's letter soliciting time to collect 
evidence, that "His Royal Highness really could not sanc- 
tion indefinite delay, in the decision of a case so materially 
involving the honour of the army." And again on the 26th, 
that "His Royal Highness could not feel justified in giving 
a sanctfon to delay urged on such grounds alone," viz. the 
collection of evidence to establish the plea of insanity. The 
only plea on which Sir Eyre Coote's complete justification 
rested. 

J) 



22 

Had tim6 been allowed, much more could 
have been collected from Ireland and other 
distant places; but though m many respects de- 
sirable, it could scarcely be supposed necessary, 
to add to a body of evidence, less than one-third 
of which would, without doubt, have been 
amply sufficient to estabhsh Sir Eyre Coote's 
innocence, to the complete satisfaction of any 
jury that could have been assembled in a court 
of justice. 

The correspondence betw^een the department 
of the Commander in Chief and Colonel Bag- 
well, contains abundant proof that there existed 
a disposition to proceed to extremities against 
Sir Eyre Coote. The letter from Major General 
Sir Henry Torrens, dated Saturday morning 
(20th of April), before Colonel Bagwell's inter- 
view with the Duke of York, and before it was 
officially known that an investigation had been 
ordered, urges the necessity of Sir Eyre Coote's 
withdrawing himself from parliament, evidently 
implying that a crime had been committed, and 
that retirement from parliament was the only 
means of avoiding that expulsion which must 
necessarily follow the punishment intended for 
him. 

The letter from Sir Henry Torrens, dated 



23 

Tuesday night (23d April), refuses the audi- 
ence solicited by Dr. Bain of the Duke of 
York, although it was solicited in order that he 
(Dr. B.), as the family physician, might acquaint 
his Royal Highness with facts, which, as they 
related to other members of Sir Eyre Coote's 
family, suffering under the same distressing 
malady, as well as to Sir Eyre Coote himself, 
it would have been miproper to commit to 
paper. And another letter, dated the 26th of 
April, long before it could have been known, or 
even guessed, what kind of evidence Sir Eyre 
Coote's friends were likely to collect, states in 
language not to be misunderstood, that the plea 
of insanity would not be admitted at all, be- 
cause Sir Eyre Coote " was known to be con- 
ducting himself, in the common relations of life, 
with his usual sanity and decorum. Thus clearly 
intimating that the door was closed against any 
defence that could be offered, unless facts could 
be controverted which, as was well known, it 
was never attempted to deny. 

Notwithstanding intimations so unequivocal, 
that a sentence had been already virtually pro- 
nounced, it was hardly possible to anticipate 
an opposition to the testimony of above sixty 
noblemen and gentlemen, who had long known 



24 

Sir Eyre Coote, and to the mass of evidence 
which had been produced in his justification, 
by that of two individuals *, neither of whom 
had ever seen him more than once. Neverthe- 
less, on the 14th of May, three General Officers, 
to whom the papers had been referred, pro- 
ceeded again, by order of his Royal Highness 
the Duke of York, to the Mansion House, to 
institute a third investigation. 

Dr. Bain having heard from Lord Lynedoch 
that this court of inquiry was ordered, he and 
Colonel Bagwell attended. The circumstances 
attending Sir Eyre Coote's former visits to the 
Hospital were not inquired into, notwithstand- 
ing the distinct challenge held out by Colonel 
Bagwell on the part of his friends, in his letter 
of the 1st of May, and substantially repeated in 
his letter to Sir John Cradock of the 2d of 
May. 

Two witnesses only were re-examined, the 
Nurse and Porter of the Hospital ; and the 
only important point of evidence obtained, was 
a declaration from the Nurse, in answer to a 
question put by Colonel Bagwell, that she had 

* The Nurse and Porter. 



25 

no reason to think there was any disposition 
whatever in Sir Eyre Coote to the commission 
of a crime. 

This question and answer (for which see the 
evidence) become highly important with a view 
to a total acquittal of criminality, from the fact, 
that when Colonel Bagwell proposed to ask the 
woman, whether from any circumstances which 
at the time when she saw Sir Eyre Coote at the 
Hospital, or subsequently, had come to her 
knowledge, she had any reason to think there 
was any disposition to the commission of a crime; 
the General Officers interposed, and said, it was 
totally unnecessary to put such a question, as 
there ivas no such charge, nor did they entertain 
any such opinion. 

Colonel Bagwell, however, wishing to have 
the testimony of the Nurse, as she, from her 
situation in the school, was the most competent 
to form an opinion on the subject, in order to 
record such evidence, being most convinced of 
the perfect innocence of his afflicted friend, the 
question was permitted to be put, and the 
woman answered thus : " 71ie JBoys have said 
j^o — there never was'' 



26 

It is also proper here to observe, the General 
Officers agreed with Colonel Bagwell, that it 
was wholly unnecessary for him to put similar 
questions to the Porter, in respect of criminality, 
as they repeated there was no such charge. 

At a meeting, the following day, at Lord 
Lynedoch's house, his Lordship and Sir Henry 
Fane both admitted to Dr. Bain their belief of 
the existence of mental derangement in Sir 
Eyre Coote ; and the former related an anec- 
dote respecting some extraordinary conduct and 
conversation of Sir Eyre, when commanding the 
troops at the siege of Flushing, in the year 
1809, to which his Lordship's attention had 
been particularly drawn, and which convinced 
him at the time that the mind of Sir Eyre Coote 
was not always in a sound state. 

It wdll therefore excite no small degree of 
astonishment, when observed, that the final 
Report made by the same General Officers, on 
the 17th of May, after referring to the evidence, 
with an asperity of language (without here ap- 
plying any more harsh epithet) clearly intended 
to make the most unfavourable impression, 
contains the following concluding paragraph : 



27 

" That although there is ample testunony of 
very eccentric and incoherent conduct, amount- 
ing perhaps to derangement of mind ; yet, at the 
period when the aforesaid discovery occurred, 
he seems to have had such possession of him- 
self as to be fully sensible of the indecency of 
the proceeding, and capable of adopting the 
most grounded and prudent means to avoid 
further disclosure." 

This assertion is directly at variance with the 
opinion of the Lord Mayor '^; and it is pre- 
sumed that a perusal of the Minutes of the 
Examination will clearly convince, even the 
most careless reader, that it is totally unsup- 
ported by the evidence. The last examination 
of the Nurse and Porter respected the state of 
Sir Eyre Coote's mind ; and on* that subject 
neither of them felt competent to give a decided 
opinion ; though the tenour of the Nurse's an- 
swers shows her to have been inclined to the 
belief that he was not sane. Neither does it 



* The Lord Mayor states, in his letter of the 29th of 
April, to Mr. Harriott, that on Sir Eyre Coote's first appear- 
ance before him on the 25th of March, he, and other persons 
present, were satisfied that Sir Eyre was deranged ; and his 
Lordship's opinion was not altered when he saw him the 
second time. 



28 

appear from the former examination of the IBth 
of April, that he " adopted the most gromided 
and prudent means to avoid further disclosure," 
or that he adopted any means at all for that 
purpose till after he had had ample time for 
recollection and reflection on the extraordinary 
situation in which he stood. He remained a 
considerable time with the woman after she 
came into the room, before the arrival of the 
Porter ; he quitted the room, and returned to 
it; and could undoubtedly have quitted the 
place altogether, if it had occurred to him that 
it was necessary. 

But admitting the fact, that Sir Eyre Coote 
was, after the appearance of the Nurse and 
Porter, " fully sensible of the indecency of the 
proceeding, and capable of adopting the most 
grounded and prudent means to avoid further 
disclosure," it proves nothing more than that the 
appearance of danger served to recall his wan- 
dering senses, in the same manner as the voice 
or appearance of the keeper instantaneously 
produces an alarm among the miserable inha- 
bitants of a lunatic asylum, and induces them 
to attempt the concealment of whatever mis^ 
chief they contemplated in his absence. 



29 

If the increasing prevalence of mental dis- 
ease in this country did not render this conclu- 
sion unfortunately too generally obvious, the 
correctness of it would be clearly established 
by the annexed joint opinion of Dr. Monro 
and Dr. Bain ; the former of whom, to talents 
of the first order as a physician, unites an expe- 
rience and practical knowledge of the various 
complicated symptoms and characteristics of 
this most distressing of human afflictions, fully 
equal, if not superior, to those of any man 
living. 

These gentlemen being professionally con- 
sulted, gave it as their opinion*, after having 
examined the whole of the documents, parti- 
cularly the copy of the Examination taken at 
the Mansion House, that the conduct and con- 
versation of Sir Eyre Coote was occasionally 
influenced by a morbid state of mind, to which 
they could assign no other name than mental 
derangement, and that a person under such in- 
fluence certainly might have been conducting 
himself, m the common relations of life^ ivith 
apparent sanity and decorum, 

* See Numbers 26 and •2'7 of the anirexed Documents. 
E 



30 

It is unnecessary to add more than that on 
the 21st of May, Lieu tenant-General Sir G. 
Lowry Cole was appointed Colonel of the 34th 
Regiment of Foot, vice General Sir Eyre 
Coote. 

The notification of Sir Eyre Coote's removal 
from the service, by gazetting his successor 
without any explanation, although perhaps deli- 
cacy towards his family may have dictated that 
mode of proceeding, has been, as might have 
been foreseen, productive of the worst conse- 
quences. 

It could not be supposed, by persons unac- 
quainted with the extent of the prerogative, 
that a general officer could be removed from 
the service at the mere will of the Crown, with- 
out trial, or even without an accusation. The 
natural conclusion therefore drawn from their 
silence was, that Sir Eyre Coote had committed 
a crime, and one of too heinous a nature to be 
made the subject of a general order. The 
most malignant reports received countenance 
from this apparently delicate mode of proce- 
dure; while it proved the surest means of 
diminishing the sympathy usually felt for the 



31 

oppressed, by giving to the conduct of the 
oppressor an appearance of magnanimity. 

The pubHc is now in possession of every cir- 
cumstance connected with this extraordinary 
and distressing case, which has phinged into 
the deepest misery one of the oldest and most 
meritorious of its mihtary servants. 

These papers prove, it is hoped, satisfactorily, 
that no crime has been committed or even con- 
templated by Sir Eyre Coote; for of neither 
committed nor intended crime luas he accused. 
His acts of folly are acknowledged ; but they 
are shown to have proceeded from occasional de- 
rangement of mind ; when under the influence 
of which, the responsibility of the unhappy suf- 
ferer is universally acknowledged to cease. 

It remains with the people of England to 
judge how far it is just, that the errors of a 
mind labouring under a disease, with which in 
this perhaps more frequently than in any other 
country, it has pleased the Almighty to afflict 
the most exalted no less than the humblest of 
his creatures, should deprive an old officer of 
the honours conferred upon him by his sovcr 



32 

reign, as the reward of forty years arduous and 
brilliant services. 

The life of Sir Eyre Goote is in all proba- 
bility drawing very near its close; the shock 
produced by this last, severest stroke, can hardly 
fail to remove him shortly beyond the reach of 
earthly care. But the justice of his country 
may afford him some consolation, even in his 
last hours, by the acknowledgment that his suf- 
ferings have been unmerited. 



Sir Eyre Coote purchased the whole of his Commissions, 
except his Lieutenancy : nevertheless, if he had been, after 
forty years service, entirely dependant on his profession, as 
is too frequently the case with military officers, he would 
now, without having committed, or even contemplated, a 
crime, be compelled to beg bread for the support of his 
family, through the country to which his best years have 
been devoted. 



33 



The following is a Statement of the Military 
Services of Sir Eyre Coote. 

He embarked for America in the year 1776, 
as Ensign in the 37th Foot. Being promoted 
in that year to a Lieutenancy, he carried the 
colours of the 37th Regiment, in the Battle of 
Brooklyn, Long Island, on the 27th of August. 
Was present at the reduction of Fort Washing- 
ton, and of York Island. On the Expedition 
to Rhode Island, in the latter end of 1776; and 
in that to the Chesapeake, in 1777. He was in 
the Battle of Brandy wine, in September, 1777; 
and in that of Germantown, in October follow- 
ing. Present at the Siege of Mud Island, in 
the same year; and at the Battle of Monmouth, 
New^ Jersey, on the 28th of June, 1778: pre- 
viously to which he had been appointed Adju- 
tant of the 37th Regiment. Being promoted 
to a Company by purchase, he was present at 
the attack of Washington's Dragoons in New 
Jersey, under Sir Charles Grey. Made the 
whole of the Campaign in the Province of New 
York, in 1779; and that in South CaroHna, in 
1780. He was present at the Siege of Charles- 
ton in that year. Made the Campaign in Vir- 
ginia, and was besieged at York Town, in 1781 5 



34 

was taken at the surrender, and sent prisoner 
up the country: released in 1732, and returned 
to England. 

He was appointed to the Majority of the 
47th Regiment, by purchase, in 1783; and in 
1788 to the Lieutenant-Colonelcy of the 70th, 
also by purchase; during which time he was 
on duty with his regiment in Ireland; and in 
1793, he was employed under Sir Charles Grey 
on the Expedition against the French West 
India Islands. Commanded the first Battalion 
of Light Infantry, and was materially concerned 
in the reduction of Martinique, St. Lucia, and 
Guadaloupe ; particularly in the Siege of Fort 
Bourbon, and the storming of the out-works of 
Morne Fortunee. He returned to England, in 
bad health, with the dispatches of the unfortu- 
nate failure at Fleur d'Epee in Guadaloupe. 

In 1795 he was made Aid-de-camp to the 
King; and in 1796 was appointed a Brigadier- 
General on the Irish Staff, and commanded the 
Gamp near Bandon. 

He was removed, as Major- General on the 
Staff, to England; and in May, 1798, com- 
manded an Expedition against Ostend, for the 



35 

purpose of destroying the sluices. The service 
was effectually performed, but, from unfortu- 
nate circumstances, the troops could not be 
re-embarked. He was attacked by a very 
superior French force, wounded, and taken 
prisoner. Exchanged in October, 1798. 

In 1799 General Coote commanded a Brigade 
on the Expedition to the Helder, and landed 
on the 27th of August, with the first division; 
was engaged with the enemy the whole of that 
day, and subsequently in the Battles of the 
19th of September, and the 2d' and 6th of Oc- 
tober. In 1800 he proceeded to the Mediter- 
ranean, and commanded, as senior General 
Officer, the landing of the British troops on the 
coast of Egypt, on the 8th of March, 1801. 
He afterwards commanded a Brigade in the 
Battles of the 13th and 21st of March. He 
conducted the Blockade of Alexandria from 
April to August, afterwards invested the town 
to the w^estward, and commanded in the Action 
of the 22d of August, near Marabout. 

After the surrender of Alexandria, on the 2d 
of September, 1801, he was appointed to the 
command of an Expedition ordered to rendez- 
vous at Gibraltar, and destined against the 



m 

Spanish possessions in South America; hut 
peace taking place in October, the Expedition 
was countermanded. 

At the commencement of the war in 1803, 
Sir Eyre Coote was placed on the Staff in 
England, and subsequently commanded a dis- 
trict in Ireland. In 1805 he was named to the 
Chief Command of an Expedition assembled 
at Cork, which however did not sail ; and in 
May of the same year he was appointed Lieu- 
tenant-Governor and Commander in Chief of 
Jamaica ; in which situation he continued until 
April, 1808. In 1809 he was appointed second 
in command to the force under the Earl of 
Chatham, and was entrusted with the command 
of the left wing of that army, destined for the 
attack of Walcheren ; conducted the Siege of 
Flushing, and by its fall completed the con- 
quest of the island. 



33 



1 HE friends of General Sir Eyre Coote, having learned 
that an inquiry had been instituted by order of His Royal 
Highness the Duke of York, into the circumstances 
which had given rise to certain reports affecting the cha- 
racter of the General — Colonel Bagwell obtained an in- 
terview with His Royal Highness; the substance of the 
conversation which took place at that interview has al- 
ready been stated, as far as appears necessary or proper. 

With a note admitting Colonel Bagwell to an inter- 
view with His Royal Highness the Duke of York, he 
(Colonel Bagwell) received the following from Sir 
Henry Torrens, which he presumes to have been written 
in consequence of Colonel Bagwell having solicited of 
Sir H. Torrens to communicate to him, as far as was 
consistent with his duty, any information he might be- 
come possessed of on the subject. It was, therefore, not 
Colonel Bagwell's intention to notice it as a public do- 
cument ; but as it is stated in a subsequent letter from 
Sir Henry Torrens, that he had placed it with the rest of 
the correspondence — Colonel Bagwell presumes he is at 
liberty to do the same. 



(Private and confidential.) Horse Guards, Saturday morning. 

MY DEAR SIR, 

From my heart 1 grieve to say, that matters look 'very 
had, and I would recommend you to take early measures 
to get this unfortunate man out of Parliament. In order 
to afford you fair time to do this, I shall endeavour to 
protract any measures it may be found necessary to 
adopt — as yet nothing is decided, but I really think you 
should lose no time. 



34 

I assure you no man can lament more forcibly than 
myself this deplorable case, and the misery it entails on 
your amiable sister. 

Ever your's most truly, 

Right Hon. Wm. Bagwefl, m. p. H. TORRENS. 



On Monday, the 22nd of April, Colonel Bagwell re- 
ceived the following letter from His Royal Highness the 
Duke of York, accompanied with a copy of the exami- 
nations taken at the Mansion House .by command of His 
Royal Highness on the 18th of April. 

(Private aud confidential.) Horse Guards, 22nd April, 1816. 

SIR, 
The reports which have been currently spread affecting 
the honour and character of General Sir Eyre Coote, 
rendered it an imperative duty due from me to the ser- 
vice, to institute a confidential inquiry into the circum- 
stances which may have given them origin, with the view^ 
if untrue, of rescuing the individual from imputations 
which tended to sully the honour of the profession, or if 
unfortunately they should be well founded, to vindicate 
the latter by a suitable notice of the misconduct, which, 
if unnoticed^ would tend to its injury. 

1 accordingly deputed Lieutenant-General Sir John 
Abercromby, and Major-Generals Sir Henry Fane, and 
Sir George Cooke, to make a due inquiry with the con- 
currence and assistance of the Lord Mayor, in the most 
private and delicate manner, into the facts of this most 
unhappy transaction; and after having perused the mi- 
nutes of their investigation, it has occurred to me, upon 
a principle of justice, that their import should be made 
known to the accused, or his immediate friends, before 
any final determination should be taken upon the case. 



35 

In considering how this reference could be made with 
delicacy towards the misfortunes of the family, the occa- 
sion of your interview with me on Saturday has suggested 
the expediency of making it through you. I, therefore, 
send you a confidential copy of the evidence of facts col- 
lected by the above-named officers; and I have to request 
that you will use your judgment as to the mode of fur- 
nishing me with any observations, that the individual or 
his friends may have to offer on this melancholy case, in 
order that the whole may be considered before the adop- 
tion of any proceeding upon it. 

I cannot withhold from you, sir, the expression of my 
unfeigned regret at the aspersions which these minutes 
cast upon the honour of an officer who has served his 
country with so much credit and distinction ; and I la- 
ment most sincerely the deep distress which the transac- 
tion must occasion the amiable family with w)iom that 
individual is connected. 

I am, sir, 
Yours, 

FREDERICK, 
Right Hon. Colonel Bagwell. Commander in Chiei 



Mansion House, 18th April, 1816. 
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIR JOHN ABEIJCROMBY, G.C.B. 
MAJOR-GENERAL SIR HENRY FANE, K.C.B. 
MAJOR-GENERAL SIR GEORGE COOKE, K.C.B. 

Having met at the Mansion House, in obedience to the 
orders of the Commander in Chief, conveyed to them 
through His Royal Highness's Military Secretary, they 
proceed to collect and record evidence on the subject to 
which their instructions relate. 

Edward Deane, aged 15 years, 7 months — a scholar 
in Christ's Hospital (in the niathematical school).- — On a 



36 

Saturday before Christmas, between 2 and 3 o'clock in the 
afternoon — the gentleman came into the school — he asked 
if we would let him flog us, and he would give us so much 
money — after he asked me several questions, he asked if 
he should flog me — I consented — he said he would give 
me Is. 6d. for six stripes — I let down my breeches, and 
he flogged me — after he flogged me, he flogged another 
boy — then he asked if any more would be flogged ; they 
said no — and he asked if we would flog him — after some 
boys flogged him — I held his watch whilst he was 
flogged — he pulled down his breeches when the boys had 
flogged him — the Nurse came in just as he was pulling up 
his breeches — she sent me for the Beadle — I could not 
find him — another boy found two of the Beadles ; they 
took him to the Steward — .Seagrim was one that flogged 
him — I believe there were two others — he flogged us 
with a rod — he gave me Is. 6d. — I had seen him go into 
the school with other boys about two years ago, twice on 
Saturday afternoons. 

John Mears, aged 15, last December — (in Mathema- 
tical School.) — I was standing in the ward, one of the boys 
came and told me there was a gentleman in the school 
sketching — I went down the school, saw him sitting on a 
form at second table — some time after I heard him ask 
if there were any rods — Mathews went and fetched one 
from the cupboard — he asked if the master was severe, 
whether he flogged much ; one of the boys answered no — 
he then asked if any of us would be flogged — I said I 
would — he agreed to give me 25. if I would let him have 
eight stripes — I stood by the side of the table, and he 
gave me four — he then put his hand and lifted me on the 
table, put his hand between my legs — my breeches were 
down — after he gave me the other four, he called me to 
th€ fire, and asked if he had made any mark ; he put his 
hand between my legs, put me across his knee, gave me 
two slaps on the backside with his bare hand — he gave 



37 

me 25. and asked if any other boy would be flogged — no 
one answered at first — he asked Deane, he was the 
largest boy there, if he would like to be flogged — Deane 
said he did not care, did not mind — he agreed to give 
Is. 6d. for six stripes — he flogged him — he then gave 3s. 
between the boys in the school — after that he said he 
would be flogged himself — he pulled his breeches down, 
and it was either me or Bailey, I don't recollect which, 
gave him two lashes with the rod — we both gave him 
two, don't recollect which first ; he pulled up his shirt 
behind, not in front — Deane held his watch — Seagrim hit 
him another stripe, and in pulling up his breeches Nurse 
came in — she sent for a Beadle — he asked her to let him 
go, you had better let me go, you don't know who I am — 
he then went out of the school, Nurse with him — he stood 
against the door on the outside with the Nurse — he pulled 
something out of his pocket and offered it to her — she 
said take your detested hand away ; at that time the 
Beadle came up, and he was taken to the Steward's 
Office — I have heard him say his name was Best, but 
the boys saw Eyre Coote on his seal*, sometimes said 

* The extraordinary evidence of these children deserves some 
notice. 
John Mears says — " The boys saw Eyre Coote on his seal." 
Paulette Mathews. — " He had a seal which the boys had seen — 
he said he had taken it in the battle of Egypt." 

Charles Roivland. — " He had a seal with .Ipyre Coote upon it." 
Thomas Bailey. — " By the seal, we thought him Sir Eyre 
Coote— the last time I looked at the seal, Sir Eyre Coote upon 
it."— 

It is a fact, known to many of Sir Eyre Coote's friends, and 
since this examination took place proved satisfactorily to others 
on inquiry, that he neither has at this time, nor ever had, a seal 
with his name on it; and that he has not, for many years, had in 
his possession a seal with even his initials. Indeed the false- 
hood is so gross, as scarcely to require contradiction. Is it pro- 
bable, that any gentleman would have his name engraved at full 



38 

Cliurchill, have seen him before, was flogged by him 
once before, just before the August vacation, believe it 
was a Saturday; the former time he desired the door to be 
locked, remained about three quarters of an hour; he was 
flogged himself at that time — I was let in on condition 
I would be flogged — Gordon it was, he is gone to sea. 

Henry Seagrim, aged 14, last March. — Remembers 
the gentleman coming, was in the school at my business, 
Bailey was sitting at second table, was door -boy — a gen- 
tleman came in, said it was one of the best schools for 
writing, and desired Bailey to let him look at his writing, 
and asked how^ often the master flogged, and if we had 
any rods — Mathews went to the cupboard, got one out — 
he asked if they liked being flogged, if any of us would 
be flogged, he would give us some money — he asked 
Deane in particular, he is the biggest boy ; w hilst he was 
talking to Deane, Mears came in, and asked him how he 
did, and shook hands with him — he asked Mears if he 
would be flogged, would give him Is. Qd. Mears would 
not for less than 2s. he flogged Mears and Deane — he 
asked me to flog him, (Mears was on the table, Deane 
standing) Bailey first, Mears second, and myself third, 
the same rod, his breeches down, and shirt up behind, he 
held it up himself^he said he would give os. between us 
all — the Nurse came in when he was buttoning up his 
breeches, and asked what he came for, she thought he 
came for no good purpose, and sent a boy down for a 
Beadle and locked the door, and locked him in — he asked 
her if she was the mother of a family, she said yes, and 

Jength on a seal? If such evidence bad been given on oatb, in 
a court of justice, the palpable falsehood would have been suf- 
ficient to invahdate the whole testimony of these witnesses, and 
might in fairness have given strong ground of suspicion, that im- 
proper influence had been employed to produce consistency iii 
their stories. 



39 

he asked her to let him go, said several times upon my 
word and honour I was doing no harm — he offered her 
something — she said take your detestable hand from me 
and all its contents. The Beadles came and took him — 
had never seen him, but heard of him before that he 
came to flog the boys and give them money ; he went by 
a number of names, some boys said it was Sir Eyre 
Coote. 

Pauhtte MathewSy aged 14, last March. — I was sitting 
writing, the gentleman came in, sat down at second table, 
looked at some of the boys writing, said it was the best 
school in England — asked if the master punished often — 
told him, no— he asked if they had any rods — I told him 
there was one, and shewed it to him — he then asked Mears 
if he should flog him — he did, and Dean likewise — gave 
Mears 2s. and Deane Is. 6d., and 3s. between the rest 
to let the boys punish him themselves, (he said flogged) — 
Mears gave him two stripes, and whilst he was doing it, 
Deane held his watch, Enner and myself hit him on the 
backside with our hands. He was buttoning up his 
breeches when Nurse came in — asked what business he 
had there — he began to make several excuses, saying, it 
was the best school he ever saw; the Nurse sent for a 
Beadle and had him taken to the Steward's. Coote put 
his hand to her with something in it, the Nurse said, take 
that cursed hand from me — 1 don't know if the door was 
locked. I had heard of him coming, but had never seen 
him to know him — came to flog the boys — came once in 
about two months — came by name of General Sir Eyre 
Coote, Smith, and names I don't recollect ; he had a seal 
the boys had seen, which he said he had taken from the 
battle of Egypt — have stood outside the door twice when 
he has been there — they used to turn the little boys out. 
I understood he was the same person — he put Mears and 
Dean on his knee, one hand on Mears's private parts, and 



40 

with the other on his backside, which he rubbed with his 
hand*. 

Charles Rozcland, aged 14, last December. — Remem- 
bers the gentleman coming one afternoon on a Saturday, 
he came into the school whilst we were going on in our 
business — said it was the finest school in the kingdom — 
who was our master — how often he flogged us ; he asked 
if we had a rod, he should like to see it. Mathews got 
a rod, he took it — he asked if he should flog one of us — 
pointed to Deane — said would give Is. 6d. for half a 
dozen — Dean agreed; afte^^vards Mears was flogged, 
had eight — gave 2.s. — stood against the table — then he 
asked if any more would be flogged, they said, no — then 
he said, should you like to flog me — he smiled, and we 
laughed — he began to put down his breeches, Mears and 
Bailey hit him two a piece — he took up his shirt himself 
behind, but not before — Seagrim gave him one, Henner 
slapped him with his hand — he said they hurt him — would 
not have any more, and whilst he was putting up his 
breeches, Nurse came in ; she asked him what he wanted 
there — he only came to see what sort of school it w as — 
he had heard it was the best school in England — he spoke 
as if it was the first time he had been there — Nurse said 
he did not appear like a gentleman coming to see the 
school, and she should send for a constable — he said he 
was a gentleman — he seemed to off"er her something — 



* It is proper to observe that when the evidence of Paulette 
Mathews was concluded, the General Officers were informed by 
one of the officers of the hospital, that this boy had been fre- 
quently punished in the school for telling lies ; it was therefore 
thought necessary to call in and re-examine John Mears, whose 
evidence contradicts that of Paulette Mathews, being, " He put 
his hand here (putting his hand in front) and slapped me with 
the other, outside my shirt — in the inner part of my thigh he put 
his hand." 



41 

she said something about taking away his disgusting hand- 
he seemed to wish to pass her, she prevented him — the 
door was not locked, but it was shut — the Beadle came, 
and he was taken to Stewards' Office. After he flogged 
Mears he took him on his knee and felt him behind, and 
round the thigh where the rod went — I had seen him 
come into the school once, and I was sent out — he had 
a seal with Eyre Coote on it, and they found his name in 
the list — they called him Sir Eyre Coote. — When he next 
came he said his name was Churchill, another time Best. 
I heard he had a pail of water thrown over him the last 
time * — he always gave money, whether he did any thing 
Or not. 

Thomas Bailey y aged 14 years. — He came on a Satur- 
day afternoon — I was door-boy — he spoke to me— I 
knew his face — had seen him once before — he said he was 
come to see the boys' writing — asked to see mine — he said 
he knew it was the best school in England — he asked if 
the master flogged much, and to see the rods — Mathews 
brought a rod, gave it to him, we were all round him — 
he asked Mears to let him flog him, would give Is. 6J. — 
he refused — would have 2s. — he agreed to it, and Mears 
was flogged — he stood leaning against the table — the 
gentleman held his shirt up with one hand and flogged 
him with the other — then Deane said he'd be flogged for 
Is. Qd. — Deane was flogged in same way^ — he asked if 
any more — none of the rest would — -then he said he 
would let them flog him — Mears had the rod — I took it, 
and gave him two stripes — he had let his breeches down — 
he held his shirt up himself — Mears gave him two more — 

* It is scarcely possible that such an occurrence could have 
taken place without some notice having been subsequently taken 
of it ; but supposing it is a fact, that a pail of water w^as thrown 
on him, his returning to the hospital, where he was likely again 
to meet with the same treatment, is a strong corroborative proof 
of his insanity. 



42 

two other boys struggled for the rod, and I think Seagrim 
got it — cut at him whilst he was putting up his breeches — 
he said we hurt him — Henner struck him with his hand 
as he was putting up his breeches — Nurse came in as he 
was buttoning up his breeches — she asked what he was 
doing — he said, nothing — she said, I'll not believe it — I 
see what posture you are in — he said upon his honour he 
only came to see the school — she said she was the mother 
of a family. — would not suffer her boys to be treated so — 
he said he was the father of a family — she sent for a 
Beadle — he offered her something — she rejected it — she 
took the money from the boys and sent it to the Steward's — 
he offered to put Mears across his knee, and Mears 
pulled himself back— he tried to put his hand to Mears's 
private parts, and he pushed it away — this was directly 
after he had flogged Mears — his left hand was on Mears's 
side, outside his shirt, and his right hand in front — could 
not see whether under his shirt or not — was not near 
enough — have seen him before — never saw him flog any 
one before — I was too little — some used to say it was 
Serjeant Best, by the seal we thought him Sir Eyre 
Coote — the last time I looked at the seal. Sir Eyre Coote 
on it. 

Polly Robinson J Nurse of King's Ward. — On Saturday- 
afternoon, in the month November, saw some of the boys 
up stairs — asked why they were not in school — they said 
they could not, there was a gentleman there — I went 
down, saw a gentleman uncovered as low as his knees 
from his breeches — was closing his draw^ers — I asked him 
what he was doing there — no harm, 1 assure you upon 
my honour — no harm, he repeated — I said that cannot 
be, sir, I will have the Beadle — Don't have the Beadle, 
he said — Again he repeated, I am doing no harm, upon 
my honour— I was only flogging those boys — I said I am 
a mother, I will have a Beadle, fetch me a Beadle — I am 
also a father, he said — worse and worse, I said — do let 



43 

me go, you don't know who I am, nor what I am — 1 said 
who you are I do not care, but what you are 1 plahily 
see — he said, I will go outside the door and stand if you 
will not let me go — I said, so you shall, I will go with 
you ; he stood a short time, then he said, I will go in 
again, ma'am — 1 said so you shall^ I will go with you ; he 
walked about agitated for a short time, then came near, 
said. Hear me, madam, and commanded me — he held his 
hand, there w as paper in it — I said, take your detestable 
hand from me and its contents, your voice is dreadful to 
me and shocks me — he said let me go before I make use 
of force — I said don't talk to me of force, before you 
should go, I would knock you down — Mr. Rigby, our 
porter, came, and 1 gave him into his custody. 

John Highy. — In month of November, on a Saturday, 
I was sent for to the Mathematical School by the Nurse ; 
found a gentleman there, I asked what was amiss — she 
said he had behaved very improperly and very indecently — 
lie then acknowledged to me that he had behaved very 
wrong and was very sorry for it, and asked me if I would 
let him go. 1 told him 1 could not do that — would send 
for the Steward to know how to act ; I took him to the 
Steward's Office, and told what I had heard, in the 
gentleman's presence — he then acknowledged he had 
acted very wrong, was very sorry, was a person of rank 
in the country, and a magistrate — the Steward asked his 
name, he refused to tell — the Steward suid he could not of 
himself let him go, would speak to the Treasurer, and I 
was directed to take him to the Compter ; going along he 
wished me to take his word, promised on his honour to 
attend on Monday ; he said he was a person of rank, was 
acquainted with Sir W. Curtis, Sir Charles Price, and 
Sir James Shaw ; those three gentlemen he named ; 
would I go or send for those gentlemen ; when he got to 
the Compter, and was asked his name, he refused to tell. 

John MearSj again called.— He put his hand here (put- 



44 

ting his hand in front) and slapped me with the other ; 
outside my shirt, in the inner part of my thigh he put his 
hand. 

(Signed) JOHN ABERCROMBY, Lieut.-General, 
H. FANE, Major-General, 
GEORGE COOKE, Major-General. 



The receipt of the foregoing letter and enclosure was 
immediately acknowledged by a letter, of which Colonel 
Bagwell believes the following to be nearly an exact copy. 

16, Bolton Street, 22d April, 1816. 
SIR, 
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your 
Royal Highness's gracious letter of this date, together 
with the examinations taken at the Mansion House on the 
18th instant; and to implore of your benevolence,' that 
no decision shall be taken upon the melancholy case of 
my friend Sir Eyre Coote, until I shall have first com- 
municated with his friends and counsel upon the subject. 
For that purpose I entertain hopes of being able to see 
Sii' Samuel Romilly this evening. 

I have the honour to be, 
Most respectfully, 
Your Royal Highness's most humble servant, 
WM. BAGWELL. 

His Royal Highness the Dnke of York. 

The following letter was written by desire of Doctor 
Bain, 'in consequence of his having been for many years 
the family physician of Sir Eyre Coote, and in order that 
he might have an opportunity of representing to His Royal 
Highness some circumstances which motives of delicacy 
prevented his stating in writing. 



45 

16, Bolton Street, 23rd April, 1816. 
MY DEAK SIU, 

I WRITE at the request of Doctor Bain, to solicit for him 
an interview with the Commander in Chief; or should 
it not be convenient to His Royal Highness, with you, 
upon the melancholy subject of Sir Eyre Coote's case. 

Ever, my dear sir, 

Faithfully yours, 

WM. BAGWELL. 

Major-Gen. Sir Henry Torrens, k. c, b. 

16, Bolton Street, 23rd April, 1816. 
MY DEAR SIR, 

You will very much oblige me, by laying my humble re- 
quest before the Commander in Chief, that His Royal 
Highness may be graciously pleased to inform me how 
far I am authorized to shew his letter of yesterday's date, 
and also the copy of examinations taken at the Mansion 
House by command of His Royal Highness, both being 
marked " private and confidential^^ 

And 1 further take this opportunity of entreating the 
Commander in Chief may be graciously pleased to allow 
me as much time as may be consistent, in order to collect 
the evidence of persons, now widely dispersed, to establish 
the plea of insanity, in the truly afflicting case of General 
Sir Eyre Coote. 

I am, my dear sir. 

Ever faithfully yours, 

WM. BAGWELL. 

Major-Gen. Sir Henry Torrens, k. c. b. 

(Private.) Fulham, Tuesday Night. 

MY DEAR SIR, 

I HAD not a moment to answer your note of this morning 
before I left the office ; but I now beg to acquaint you, 



46 

that I did not fail to submit your wishes to the Duke : and 
I am authorized to say, that with every disposition to shew 
them attention, His Royal Highness cannot see the uti- 
lity of his affording an interview to Doctor Bain, having 
transmitted you the Minutes of the Inquiry, with a view 
of your availing yourself of any observations which the 
Doctor, or any other of the friends of the family, might 
have to offer. 

As the interview with me can only have the object 
which the Doctor proposes in a direct communication 
with his Royal Highness, and is therefore liable to the 
same observation, I can have no objection, however^ to 
receive him, if you have any particular wish upon the 
subject. But I beg to observe, that Lord Suffolk has 
already imparted to me the opinion which 1 imagine the 
Doctor wishes to express personally, and I did not fail to 
communicate that opinion to the Commander in Chief. 

I have not had an opportunity this evening of taking 
His Royal Highness's pleasure upon the second note I 
have received from you ; but you shall hear from me on 
the subject to-morrow. 

Yours most sincerely, 
The Right Hon. Col. Bagwell. H. TORRENS. 

The above letter was transmitted by Colonel BagwelJ 
to Doctor Bain. 



(Private.) Horse Guards, April 24, 1816. 

MY DEAR SIR, 

Upon the subject of your second note^ the Duke ob- 
serves, that on a reference to his letter of the 22d instant, 
and its enclosure^ you will find it expressly stated, that 
the communication was made through you, in order that 
his Royal Highness should be furnished with such ob- 
servations from the individual, or his immediate friends, 



47 

as ill your judgment you might obtain. The mark *' pri- 
vate and confidential" upon the paper, therefore, was not 
intended to limit your discretion ; but was merely sug- 
gested by the extreme delicacy of the subject, which, 
in deference to the feelings of the family, it would 
appear proper to impart only to these confidential friends. 
A fair and reasonable time would of course be allowed 
to make what communications you should think proper ; 
but His Royal Highness really could not sanction indefi- 
nite delay in the decision of a case so materially involving 
the honour of the army. 

Yours most faithfully. 
Right Hon. Colonel Bagwell. H. TORRENS. 



(Private.) Horse Guards, 26th April, 181(i. 

MY DEAR SIR, 

To the great regret of the Commander in Chief and my- 
self, I am again under the necessity of addressing you 
with reference to my last note upon the subject of the 
melancholy case transmitted with His Royal Highnesses 
letter of the 22nd instant. But upon a further conside- 
ration of the contents of your private to me of the 24th 
instant. His Royal Highness deems it incumbent upon him 
to request an explicit explanation as to the extent to which 
the friends of Sir Eyre Coote may propose to collect tes- 
timony upon the tendency of the minutes taken at the 
Mansion House. 

Unless his friends mean to controvert the fact of the 
General's former visits to Christ's Hospital, as all edged 
in those minutes, it would appear nugatory to collect re- 
cent evidence to establish the plea of insanity, in exte- 
nuation of the circumstances which are stated to have 
occurred in the last visit ; but should they take a wider 
retrospect in the examination of his conduct in common 
life, in order to extend such a plea regarding his former 



48 

visits made under different names, His Royal Highness 
would consider it his painful duty to have evidence taken 
also as to the circumstances which may have occurred in 
these visits, to which only a cursory allusion was made 
in the examination at the Mansion House. 

In requesting to know from you what may be the views 
of Sir Eyre Coote's friends in this respect, His Royal 
Highness must make some allusion to the time which 
may be required to carry their proceedings into effect ; 
and he desires I will repeat, that he would be extremely 
sorry to press them, so as to weaken any advantage which 
the case might derive from any testimony to be collected; 
yet, as no apparent advantage can attend the plea of in- 
sanity, should it be intended to embrace the retrospective 
period, when the General appears to have visited Christ's 
Hospital, and while he was known to be conducting him- 
self, in the common relations of life, with his usual sanity 
and decorum, His Royal Highness could not feel justified 
in giving a sanction to delay urged upon such grounds 
alone, both on account of what is due to the honour of 
the profession which stands implicated under a disgrace- 
ful charge against one of its chief members, and to the 
convenience of the General Officers, who having taken the 
original evidence, are held in readiness to have submitted 
to them whatever may be alledged in its extenuation. 
I have the honour to be, 
My dear sir. 
Yours very faithfully, 
Right Hon. Col. Bagwell. H. TORRENS. 



Bolton Street, 27th April, 1816. 
MY DEAR SIR, 

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your 
letter of yesterday's date ; and, in reply thereto, have to 
observe, for the information of His Royal Highness the 



49 

Commander in Chief, that it is the intention of the friends 
of Sir Eyre Coote to comprehend every circumstance as 
narrated by the boys and others at Christ's Hospital (with- 
out reference to any particular periods), in the defence 
founded upon a plea of insanity, which they propose to 
set up in his justification ; feeling most confident of suc- 
cess in this truly melancholy undertaking, provided His 
Royal Highness shall be graciously pleased to allow 
them sufficient time for the collection of cases affecting 
the individual, for the expression of the sentiments of 
those to whom the General has been best known for 
a series of years past, as also for proofs that many of 
his immediate relations have laboured under, and that 
some at this present time labour under the same dread- 
ful malady. 

With respect to the extent of time which may be re- 
quired by the friends of Sir Eyre Coote, in order to collect 
the necessary documents, I shall not fail communicating 
to you their joint opinion with the least possible delay. 
But I must be permitted to remark, if, as you state in 
your letter, no advantage can attend the plea of insanity, 
should it be intended to embrace a retrospective period 
beyond the General's last visits to the Hospital (which it is 
undoubtedly the intention of his friends to set forth) ; and 
that His Royal Highness could not feel justified in giving 
a sanction to delay urged upon such grounds, they must 
consider such a refusal as debarring' them from the 
means of obtaining such a complete body of evidence as 
would, in their judgment, make out the case irrefragably. 
However, they must, injustice to the unhappy individual, 
and with a view to rescue a distinguished officer from the 
indelible opprobrium the adoption of unfavourable mea- 
sures would cast upon him, and entail upon his family, 
most earnestly supplicate of His Royal Highness that 
sufficient time may be affijrded. At the same time, I can 

H 



50 

assure you most truly, every practicable expedition shall 
be used in furnishing the documents in question. 

And to you personally, I must take leave, in conjunc- 
tion with others of Sir Eyre Coote's friends, humbly to 
observe, that in our opinion, as a military inquiry has 
been instituted, after the total dismissal of this most deli- 
cate and afflicting subject by the Lord Mayor of London, 
in his judicial capacity, the honour of the army would be 
better consulted in the vindication of one of its chief 
members, who has been guilty of such follies as have 
been detailed in the examinations taken at the Mansion 
House, upon the plea of insanity now preferred, being 
established, than in the precipitation of a decision so 
materially involving in its consequences, the character 
and happiness of a highly respectable family. 
I have the honour to be, 

My dear sir, 
Most faithfully yours, 

WM. BAGWELL. 
Major-Gen. Sir Henry Torrens, k. c. b. 



16, Bolton Street, 30th April, 1816. 
MY DEAR SIR, 

I BEG the favour of you to lay my humble request before 
the Commander in Chief, that His Royal Highness may 
be graciously pleased to furnish me with copies of any 
written communications which may have passed between 
him and the Lord Mayor of London, relative to General 
Sir Eyre Coote. 

1 have the honour to be, 

My dear sir, 
Very faithfully yours, 
WM. BAGWELL. 

Major-Gen. Sir Henry Toi reus, k. c. b. 



51 

16, Bolton Street, 30th April, 1816. 
MY DEAR SIR, 

I SEIZE the earliest opportunity of acquainting you, for 
the information o( His Royal Highness the Duke of 
York, that the friends of Sir Eyre Coote will be enabled 
to furnish the several (which they deem irresistible) docu- 
ments, proposed to be submitted in his justification, early 
the ensuing week ; and I beg leave to observe, they have 
applied, and continue to apply, the utmost diligence in 
the collection, both in consequence of the tenor of your 
letter of the 26th instant, and with a view to the conve- 
nience of the General Officers who are held in readiness 
to receive them. 

I have the honour to be. 

My dear sir, 
Very faithfully yours, 
WM. BAGWELXi. 

Major-Gen. Sir Henry Torrens, K. c. B. 



16, Bolton Street, 1st May, 1816. 

Upon reference to that part of your letter of the 26th 
ult. wherein you write, *' Should the friends of Sir 
Eyre Coote take a wide retrospect in the examination of 
his conduct in common life, in order to extend such a 
plea (insanity) regarding his former visits (to Christ's Hos- 
pital) made under different names ; His Royal Highness 
would consider it his painful duty to have evidence taken 
also as to the circumstances that may have occurred in 
these visits, to which only a cursory allusion was made 
in the examination at the Mansion House." 

I have, on the part of Sir Eyre Coote's friends, to 
state, that fearing their silence upon that subject might 
be considered as betraying an apprehension of the con- 
sequences of such further inquiry being instituted, they 



52 

feel anxious to have it distinctly understood, that such 
an intention being expressed *', it is their most earnest wish 
that the most rigid investigation may take place, being 
perfectly confident of its appearing in the result, that 
nothing whatever criminal occurred ; and that the extraor- 
dinary acts of folly of which their afflicted friend has been 
guilty, can only be imputed to his having been subject 
to periodical fits of insanity. 

I have the honour to be. 

My dear su', 
Very faithfully yours, 
WM. BAGWELL. 

Major^Gen. Sir Henry Torrens, k. c. b. 

(Private.) Horse Guards, May 1, 1816. 

MY DEAR SIR, 

In reply to your letter of yesterday, I have the Commander 
in Chief's commands to acquaint you, that His Royal 
Highness does not feel himself at liberty to comply with 
your request of furnishing you with copies of the letters 
which passed between His Royal Highness and the Lord 
Mayor. 

Being anxious, however, to relieve your mind from any 
unfounded apprehension as to the purport of that cor- 
respondence, His Royal Highness has directed me fur- 
ther to state, that the sole object of his letter was to 
request a copy of any minutes of evidence that might 
have been taken upon the examinations before the Lord 
Mayor ; and that it appears by his Lordship's answer, 
that no written evidence was taken upon the occasion. 
I have the honour to be. 

My dear sir. 

Most faithfully yours. 
Right Hon. Col. Bagwell. H. TORRENS. 

* Vide letter to Sir John Cradock in the next page. 



53 

On the 2nd of May, Sir John Cradock called upon Co- 
iOnel Bagwell, and stated that an expression in a letter from 
Colonel Bagwell to Sir Henry Torrens had given consider- 
able offence ; and, as a mutual friend, he entreated of him 
to explain it away in as satisfactory a manner as he was 
able ; as, should it not be so explained, it might give rise to 
much irritation, perhaps, on both sides, in the future cor- 
respondence which might be carried on between the 
Horse Guards and him. Colonel Bagwell told Sir John 
Cradock, he presumed the expression to which he alluded, 
was " a menace," in his letter of yesterday's date (to 
which he replied in the affirmative). Colonel Bagwell 
stated, he was not a man who would designedly make use 
of an expression which might be offensive to any person, 
and certainly the last man who would presume to write 
any thing disrespectful to so exalted a personage as His 
Royal Highness the Duke of York ; but that he really, 
upon the best consideration, could find no term which 
Gould convey his meaning, excepting threat or menace ; 
and he considered the latter the least harsh. Yet he was 
most willing, as a wrong interpretation was put by Sir 
Henry Torrens upon his intentions, to substitute the 
mildest term he should be enabled upon further consi- 
deration to devise, provided it did not materially alter the 
substance, which he was not authorized to do, being the 
joint expression of the friends of Sir Eyre Coote : and he 
added, he should take the liberty of availing himself of 
Sir John Cradock's suggestion, by writing him a letter 
upon the subject, which he might shew to Sir Henry 
Torrens. He accordingly wrote the following: 

Bolton Street, 2nd May, 1816. 
MY DEAR SIR, 

In consequence of the kind intimation I received from 
you, when you did me the honour of calling here this 
day, I lose no time in soliciting the favour of you to take 



54 

the earliest opportunity which may, consistently with your 
convenience, present itself, to express from me to Sir 
Henry Torrens, the extreme regret with which I have 
understood, that an expression in a letter from me to him, 
of yesterday's date, should in any manner be so construed, 
as to convey the slightest apprehension on his part, that 
it was dictated by any sentiment opposite to that of the 
most profound respect to His Royal Highness the Duke 
of York. 

Adverting to the particular word, I can with the utmost 
truth assure you I was not aware the English vocabulary 
afforded any term synonymous in its import, and yet less 
harsh in sound, so as to impress on the mind of the 
reader the real intention with which it was used ; however, 
I have ventured to substitute in my copy of the letter in 
question the words " intention so expressed" for " meJiace 
so held out/' and I earnestly trust this alteration will so 
far meet the views of Sir Henry Torrens, as to induce 
him to make a similar one in the original. 

If, however, I shall have been considered as having in 
substance, trangressed the limits prescribed by a deep 
sense of what is due from so very humble an individual 
as myself towards His Royal Highness, I entertain a 
confident hope it will be ascribed to its true cause, 
namely, an extreme degree of susceptibility in the de- 
plorable undertaking in which I am engaged. 
I have the honour to be, 
My dear sir. 
Most faithfully yours, 

WM. BAGWELL. 

General Sir John Cradock, g. c. b. 

Bolton Street, 6th May, 1816. 
MY DEAR SIR, 

I HAVE now the honour herewith to enclose the several 
papers proposed by the friends of Sir Eyre Coote, toge- 



55 

tlier with the schedule thereof, to be laid before His Royal 
Highness the Commander in Chief, in extenuation of acts 
of insanity, confessedly committed in visits made to Christ's 
Hospital, and they beg leave to express an earnest hope 
that when the extreme delicacy and difficulties which ne- 
cessarily attended the collection of such a mass of evi- 
dence are considered (although from obvious reasons they 
have been precluded from all application to any of Sir 
Eyre's own immediate relations), they will not be subject 
to the imputation of having caused any unreasonable de- 
lay. They must here also be permitted to remark, that 
were it not from serious apprehensions arising from their 
construction of your letter of the 26th ult. they would 
doubtless have been enabled to procure many corrobo- 
rative documents, particularly from Ireland. 

They purposely abstain from any enumeration of the 
public merits or private virtues of their afflicted friend, 
judging that the former must be well known and appre- 
ciated by the Commander in Chief, as the latter are fully 
acknowledged by a wide circle of intimates ; yet whilst 
they have to express their unfeigned sorrow at having 
had a most distressing alternative imposed upon them, 
they have nevertheless adopted that line which they con- 
ceive to be best calculated to rescue his character and 
that of his posterity from the indelible disgrace which 
might otherwise attach to it. They feel also most confi- 
dent in asserting that upon the most deliberate examina- 
tion of the minutes of the investigation taken at the Man- 
sion House, there does not appear any circumstance 
which could induce the slightest belief that that which 
occurred, had been committed through any propensity to 
criminality, or vice, and they are strongly fortified in this 
opinion, by the knowledge they possess of the high ho- 
nour and virtuous habits which have peculiarly marked the 
character of Sir Eyre Coote, during a long well-spent life, 



56 

the greater part of which has been devoted to the sei-vice 
of his king and country. 

It now only remains for me humbly to solicit of the 
Duke of York, should the plea of insanity not be estab- 
lished to the perfect satisfaction of His Royal Highness, 
as it most unquestionably has been to the friends of Sir 
Eyre Goote, and that a further exposure of the dreadful 
malady with which many of his family have been afflicted, 
shall be deemed necessary ; it may be graciously pleased, 
in justice to the unhappy man, to give directions to the 
General Officers, who it appears are to receive the 
papers, that Dr. Bain, the professional and confidential 
attendant upon the family, may be called before them, as 
the Doctor has expressed his willingness to disclose that 
which he could not with propriety commit to paper. 

And I beg leave most respectfully to submit, that I 
may be commanded by His Royal Highness to give my 
personal attendance, as the friend of General Sir Eyre 
Coote. 

I have the honour to be, 

My dear sir. 

Very faithfully yours, 

WM. BAGWELL. 

Major-Gen. Sir Henry Torrens, k.c. b. 



The following letter was received at ten A. M. on Sa- 
turday, the 11th of May, 1616. 

Horse Guards, May 10th, 1816. 
MY DEAR SIR, 

1 CONSIDER it due to your feelings to account for the de- 
lay that has occurred upon the distressing case of our 
recent correspondence. . 

Sir John Abercromby is unfortunately very unwell, and 



57 

having ascertained that there was little chance of his being 
able to resume the duty in which he was employed, the 
Commander in Chief has nominated Lord Lynedock to 
take his place. The proceedings will now go on ; and in 
reference to your last letter, transmitting the different 
papers regarding Sir Eyre Coote's mental infirmities, I 
can only say that His Royal Highness has no objection 
whatever to you and Dr. Bain being present at any fur- 
ther examination which the General Officers may adopt. 

Ever, my dear sir, 

Yours most faithfully, 

Right Hon. Colonel Bagwell. H. TORRENS. 



16, Bolton Street, 21st May, 1816. 
MY DEAR SIR, 

The friends of Sir Eyre Coote feel particularly desirous 
of obtaining a copy of the Report made to the Commander 
in Chief by the General Officers, to whom the several 
papers relating to the case of Sir Eyre Coote were re- 
ferred, should His Royal Highness not deem it inexpe- 
dient to furnish them with that document. 

It being likewise of material consequence, that they 
should be put in possession of the examinations taken at 
the Mansion House on Wednesday the 15th instant; 
they humbly hope that His Royal Highness will be gra» 
ciously pleased to give directions that they may be sup- 
plied with them. 

I have the honour to be. 
My dear sir. 
Very truly yours, 

WM. BAGWELL. 

Major-Gen. Sir Henry Ton ens, k.c. b. 



5t3 



Horse Guards, 23d May, 1816. 
DEAR SIR, 
In consequence of the Commander in Chiefs absence 
from town yesterday, I had it not in my power to make 
an immediate reply to your letter; but, in compliance 
with your request, I have now His Royal Highness's 
commands to transmit further copies of the evidence 
taken at the Mansion House, by the G eneral Officers em- 
ployed to investigate the transaction which occurred at 
Christ's Hospital, together with their final Report. 

1 have the honour to be. 

Dear sir. 

Your obedient humble servant. 

The Right Hon. Colonel Bagwell. H. TORRENS. 



Grafton Street, 14th May, 1816. 
(Present.) 

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL LORD LYNEDOCK. 
MAJOR-GENERAL SIR H. FANE. 
MAJOR-GENERAL SIR GEORGE COOKE. 

Having read and considered the evidence given at the 
Mansion House on the 18th of April last, relative to the 
transaction in which General Sir Eyre Coote is a party, 
(submitted to their consideration by order of His Royal 
Highness the Commander in Chief); and having also 
read the letter from Colonel Bagwell, dated the 6th in- 
stant, and the twenty-seven papers which accompanied it : 
resolved, that they will to-morrow further examine the two 
witnesses, Polly Robinson, and John Rigby; and that 
Colonel Bagwell and Dr. Bain be requested to be pre- 
sent. — They then adjourned until to-morrow. 



59 



Mansion House, 15th May, 1816. 
The General Officers before named, having rnet Colonel 
Bagwell and Dr. Bain, according to appointment, at the 
Mansion House; they proceeded to put the following 
questions to Polly Robinson, the Nurse of Christ's Hos- 
pital, one of the witnesses whose testimony appears in 
the examinations of the 18th of April — (her replies to 
which follow each question). 

Question 1st. — Did you observe any thing in the man- 
ner or conduct of the gentleman (relative to whom you 
gave your testimony upon a former occasion), which 
could lead you to have supposed him in a deranged state 
of mind, at the period when you detected him ? 

Answer. — My agitation was so great, 1 do not reckon 
myself a competent judge. 

The gentleman was violently agitated, and his appear- 
ance strange. 

There was a wildness in his manner, which I attributed 
to his having been detected in the manner he was. 

Question 2d. — Was there any incoherence in his con- 
versation ; or any thing more in his appearance than the 
confusion likely to arise from being detected under the 
circumstances you have on a former occasion detailed? 

Answer. — At the time of his saying, *^' you had better 
let me go before I use force" — he had something very 
wild about his eyes. 

Question Sdl — If you were on your oath, should you 
declare you thought him, at the time alluded to in your 
former examination, capable of knowing right from 
wrong ? 

Answer. — I could not take my oath either way. 

Question 4th. — Did he say any thing to you, to lead 
you to suppose it was the Jirst time he had been at the 
Hospital ? 



60 

Answer. — He certainly did. He told me he never was 
there before. 

Question by Colonel Bagwell. — Upon the reflection 
you have been enabled to give the subject since its oc- 
currence, do you consider the person was or was not in 
a deranged state of mind ^ 

Answer.^ — I conclude no gentleman in his senses could 
have been guilty of such conduct. 

Question by Colonel Bagwell. — From any circum- 
stances which at that time, or subsequently, have come to 
your knowledge ; have you any reason to thmk there was 
any disposition to the commission of a crime ? 

Answer. — The boys have said^ no ; that there never 
was. 

John Rigby, the Porter of the Hospital, who also was 
a witness upon the former occasion, was then called in 
and examined. 

Question 1st. — Did you observe any thing in the man- 
ner or conduct of the gentleman, (concerning whom you 
gave your testimony on a former occasion) which could 
lead you to have supposed him deranged in mind? 

Answer I saw nothing particular, but that he seemed 

very much agitated. 

Question 2d Was there any incoherence in his con- 
versation r or any thing more in his appearance than the 
confusion likely to arise from being detected under the 
circumstances you have before detailed f 

Answer. — Nothing beyond particular agitation. 

Question 3d. — If you were on your oath, should you 
declare you thought him at any part of the time he was 
under your observation, incapable of knowing right from 
wrong ? 

Answer. — He was very much agitated ; but there was 
no period I did not think him capable of knowing rigl>t 
from wrong. 



61 

An adjournment then took place till ten o'clock to- 
morrow. 

Grafton Street, 16th May, 1816. 
The before-named General Officers having assembled in 
Grafton Street, proceeded, at the request of Colonel Bag- 
well and Dr. Bain, to hear the testimony of the latter, 
relative to the general state of mind of Sir E. Coote. 

Dr. Bain stated himself to have been acquainted with 
Sir E. Coote for a period of twenty-two years; and 
to have been professionally acquainted as well as per- 
sonally connected with him. He detailed a variety of 
circumstances tending to shew the morbid state of Sir 
Eyre Coote's mind for a considerable period passed ; 
and especially since his return from his government in 
the West Indies. He instanced, as examples of this 
state, great depression of spirits, without any apparent 
cause ; great caprice on various occasions, as re- 
spected both his intimate friends and others — complaints 
without cause of the treatment he experienced from the 
government of the country, and a constant and general 
restlessness, and disinclination to being settled any where. 
Upon the whole he declared he had long since drawn the 
conclusion, that Sir Eyre Coote was a deranged person ; 
that the disease of his mind was increasing upon him, 
and that it would end in confirmed madness ; and that he 
had upon several occasions mentioned, this as his opinion 
to his (Dr. Bain's) son. 

An adjournment then took place. 



REPORT, May 17th, 1816. 

It appears to us from a careful examination of the decla- 
rations of the different persons examined at the Mansion 
House on the 18th of April, 1816, and on the i5th of 
May, 1816^ as also of the documents furnished by Colonel 



62 

Bagwell (numbered from 1 to 27 inclusive), to be estab- 
lished, 

1. That General Sir Eyre Coote was detected at 
Christ's Hospital on a Saturday afternoon, in the month 
of November last, under the circumstances detailed in the 
evidence. 

2. That he had been there before on the same errand. 

3. That, although there is ample testimony of very ec- 
centric and incoherent conduct, amounting perhaps to 
derangement of mind ; yet, at the period when the afore- 
said discovery occurred, he seems to have had such pos- 
session of himself as to be fully sensible of the indecency 
of the proceeding, and capable of adopting the most 
grounded and prudent means to avoid further disclosure. 

(Signed.) LYNEDOCK, Lieutenant-General. 
H. FANE, Major-General. 
GEORGE COOKE, Major-General. 



Received Tuesday Morning, 21st May, 1816. 
(Private and confidential.) Horse Guards, Monday night. 

MY DEAR SIR, 

Although the intimation I have already given you, 
would appear to have suj05ciently redeemed the promise 
I made of affording you such information as might guide 
your proceedings in regard to Sir Eyre Coote's seat in 
Parliament, yet the desire, prompted by every motive, 
to adhere to the very letter of my w^ords fulfilment, in- 
duces me to repeat, that you have no time to lose in getting 
him out of the House of Commons. Should you still think 
such a precaution an expedient anticipation of any pro- 
ceedings that might otherwise be adopted in this unfortu- 
nate and most unhappy case. 

It does not belong to me to attempt to controvert the 
opinion you entertain, as expressed to our mutual friends, 



63 

upon the personal indisposition you consider to have been 
manifested in this Building towards your unfortunate friend. 
But I owe it to myself to declare that no one circum- 
stance in my public life has ever given me so much heart- 
felt uneasiness ; nor has there ever been, both in the case 
of those whose orders I execute and myself, a more dis- 
tressing conflict between a sense of public duty, and 
private feelings of commiseration for the misery of an 
amiable family. 

I have the honour to be. 
My dear sir, 
Yours most truly, 
Right Hon. Col. Bagwell. H. TORRENS. 

As I have written " private and confidential letters to 
you, which partook at the same time of an official cha- 
racter, it may be necessary to say, that this is solely from 
myself. 

H. T. 



16, Bolton Street, Thursday morning, 23d May, 1816. 
NY DEAR SIR, 

In reference to your note of Monday night last, I beg 
leave to represent to you in the most explicit manner, 
that so far from my entertaining any apprehensions which 
should induce me to take precautionary steps to get Sir 
Eyre Coote out of Parliament ; I shall not fail, in the 
event of the adoption of any unfavourable measures to- 
wards him by the executive power of the state, myself to 
submit the whole case to the House of Commons, being 
the only tribunal to which such an ulterior appeal can 
with propriety be made by me. 

I have the honour to be. 
My dear sir. 
Very truly yours, 

WM. BAGWELL. 
Major-General Sir Henry Torrens, k. c. b. 



64 

The following letter was received at five minutes past 
six p. M. on 23d of May ; it arrived at Colonel Bag- 
well's house half an hour or thereabouts before that time, 
according to the account of his servant. 



Horse Guards, 2Sd May, 1816. 
MY DEAR SIR, 

I HAVE just now the honour of receiving your letter of 
to-day, in reply to my " 'private and confidentiaV note ! 
It may be necessary to say that an intimation of your 
ulterior intentions cannot be a matter of importance to 
me personally, nor can it in any manner affect the pro- 
ceedings that may be considered expedient by the execu- 
tive power of the state, should I find myself at liberty to 
impart the answer you have thought it necessary to make 
to a confidential communication from myself, for which 
I have no authority ; and in which I could have no other 
view than a compliance with a personal request from you, 
and the promise I made in consequence of it. 

As your letter does not bear the confidential mark of 
that from me to which it is a reply, I presume 1 may be 
justified in imparting its contents ; but deeming it fair to 
understand your views on this point most explicitly, and 
at the same time thinking it essential that all correspon- 
dence, but what may be absolutely necessary, should cease 
between us, I shall consider myself at liberty to shew 
your letter of this date, and the previous communications 
from myself, provided I do not hear from you before six 
o'clock this evening. 

I have the honour to be, 

Dear sir. 

Your most faithful servant. 

Right Hon. Col. Bagwell. H. TORRENS. 



05 



Bolton Street, 24th May, 1816. 



MY DKAU SI1{, 



I CANNOT refrain in imploring a release from the excru- 
ciating state of suspense in which Sir Eyre Coote, my 
disconsolate sister, and myself have now been so long 
kept, from making some allusions to the time which has 
elapsed without any communication having been made to 
me of a decision in my unhappy friend's case ; for upon 
reference to my letter of the '23d of April^ it will be seen, 
" I entreat His Royal Highness the Commander in Chief 
may be graciously pleased to allow as much time as shall 
be found consistent, in order to enable me to collect the 
evidence of persons widely dispersed to establish the plea of 
insanity in the case of Sir Eyre Coote ;" and to your reply 
of the 24th of April, in which you state, " A fair and rea- 
sonable time would of course be allowed to make what 
communications I should think proper; but His Royal 
Highness really could not sanction indefinite delay in the 
decision of a case so materially involving the honour of 
the army." It will also appear in a subsequent commu- 
nication from me, that by great exertion to meet the 
views of His Royal Highness in that respect, I suc- 
ceeded in collecting the mass of evidence offered by the 
friends of Sir Eyre Coote in his defence, and actually fur- 
nished it on the morning of the 6th of May, being precisely 
fourteen days from the date of the first letter I had the 
honour to receive from His Royal Highness upon the 
subject ; and that eighteen days have now passed by since 
that period, without any official result having been made 
known to me. It is also observable that the final Report 
of the General Officers to whom the case has been re- 
ferred, was, as it appears by the letter of Lord Lynedock 
which accompanied it, made on the 17th instant, now 
seven days ago. 

K 



(>(J 

By a letter 1 have received tVoai Lady Coote, it ap- 
pears Sir Eyre is in a very bad state of health, and his 
only daughter of three dangerously ill and dreadfully al" 
fected, which circumstances, added to my own feelings, 
induce me to supplicate of His Royal Highness's cle- 
mency, a prompt decision in this calamitous case — as 1 
really dread delay may be attended with the most fatal 
consequences. 

I have the honour to be, 
My dear sir. 
Your faithful humble servant, 
WM. BAGWELL. 

Major-Geneial Sir Henry Torrens, k. c. b. 



Horse Guards, May 2.Sd, 1816. 
DEAR SIR, 
I HAVE had the honour to receive and to lay before the 
Commander in Chief your letter of yesterday's date ; and 
am commanded to express His Royal Highness's con- 
cern for the painful state of suspense to which the family 
and friends of Sir Eyre Coote have been subjected by the 
unavoidable delay attending a decision in his case — but His 
Royal Highness is not aware that any time has been af- 
forded that was not essential to the consideration of so 
great and important a question — or that could sanction 
the implied inconsistency connected with your allusion to 
the former communications to you on the subject of delay. 
Whatever length of time might have elapsed in the inves- 
tigation, or in the collection of your documents upon 
which to establish the plea of insanity, the same period 
that has occurred in the tinal consideration of the case 
must have been afforded to it, with the exception of the 
delay unavoidably attending the indisposition of Lieute- 
nant-General Sir Joiui Abercromby — the substitution of 



(J7 

Lieutenant-General Lord Lynedock, as explained and 
apologised for to you in my letter of the 10th instant. 

I must now explain, that immediately after the case was 
finally decided upon — I wroie to you confidentially^ and 
from a misapprehension of your views and wishes, / had 
framed a plan of delaying the publication of such de- 
cision until the latter end of next week ; but finding by 
your letter of the 23d, in reply to that communication, 
that I had been mistaken, and having shewn the latter to 
the Commander in Chief and Secretary of State, at the 
expiration of the time I mentioned to you in answer to 
it, an immediate order was given for publishing in the 
Gazette of this night the pleasure of the Prince Regent. 

I lament to say that this decision goes the length of re- 
moving Sir Eyre Coote from the service ; and the measure 
is merely conveyed to the public by the succession to his 
regiment, without mentioning the act of removal itself. 

This matter might certainly have been imparted to you 
yesterday ; and as you appear to attach a consequence to 
the most early information, I regret that an official com- 
munication of the decision was not made to you; particu- 
larly as the omission rests with myself, inasmuch as 1 have 
no doubt but it would have been sanctioned, had 1 felt it 
necessary after ^ hat had passed between us, to put the 
Commander in Chief in mind of your probable expecta- 
tions on the subject. 

I have the honour to be. 
Dear sir, 
Your most faithful servant, 
Right Hon. Col. Bagwell. H. TORRENS. 

N. B. It may be necessary to explain, that having been 
obliged to shew your letter of the 23d to the Commander 
in Chief, and consequently the confidential communica- 
tions from myself, the latter have now been placed with 
the rest of the correspondence. 

H. T. 



6B 



16, Bolton Street, 26tli May, 1816. 

BEAK SIR, 
Upon consulting with the immediate relations of Sir Ejre 
Coote, regarding their sentiments and wishes, in respect 
to the expediency of my submitting his case to Par- 
liament — I find they express so decided a repugnance to 
accede to such a proposition, inasmuch as it would expose 
more than has already been, the malady to which many 
of his family are unhappily subject; that I am induced to 
forego my own feelings, and renounce my intentions of 
making any specific motion in the House of Commons 
upon the melancholy occasion. Should it however so 
happen, that any measure shall be grounded in Par- 
liament upon the decision of His Royal Highness the 
Prince Regent, over which I can have no controul, I 
shall of course, in furtherance of the defence I shall have 
to set up in my poor fallen friend's case, feel myself at 
liberty to state every circumstance which has come within 
my knowledge in the course of the investigation, in my 
place in the House of Commons. 

I have thought it fair and proper to explain thus much, 
perhaps in my own justification, as I had expressed my- 
self otherwise in a former letter to you, without any pre- 
vious communication with the relations of Sir Eyre 
Coote upon this most delicate subject. 

I have the honour to be, 

Dear sir, 

Very truly yours, 

WM. BAGWELL. 

M^or-Gen«raI Sir Henry Torrens, k. c. k. 



69 

Horse Guards, 27th May, 1816. 
DEAR SIR, 

I HAVE had the honour to receive and to lay before the 
Commander in Chief your letter of yesterday, and I am 
commanded to acquaint you, that should the unfortunate 
subject of Sir Eyre Coote's case be made the ground of 
any measure in Parliament, His Royal Highness can have 
no other wish, than that you should state in your place, 
in the House of Commons, every circumstance connected 
with the investigation that has come within your know- 
ledge. 

I have the honour to be, 
Dear sir, 
Your most faithful servant, 
Right Hon. Colonel Bagwell. H. TORRENS. 



70 

No. 2^-. ' 

Documents transmitted to His Royal Highness the Com- 
mander in Chief with Colonel Bagwell's Letter of 
the 6th May, 1816. 

Copy of a letter from the Lord Mayor to Mr. Han- 
rott. 

SIR, 

From your intimation of the wish of the friends of Sir 
Eyre Coote to be in possession of my opinion upon the 
state of that gentleman's mind, when a complaint came 
before me by the officers of Christ's Hospital in Novem- 
ber last, I feel no difficulty in acceding to their wishes, 
and do not scruple therefore to say, that independent of 
the public manner in which he so foolishly conducted 
himself at the time he was with the boys, his general 
manner of expression and action was such that all those 
persons present thought he was a deranged man ; and on 
his appearing the second time my opinion remained un- 
altered, for he frequently declared he was mad, as he was 
sure he never could have been guilty of such folly. 

I remain, sir, 

Your very humble servant, 
(Signed) MATHEW WOOD, Mayor. 
P. A. Hanrott, Esq. Mansion House, syth April, 1816. 



* No. 1 is the Letter from Mr. Corp to Sir Eyre Coote, inserted 
in the Introduction. 

The Papers numbered 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, and 22, it is considered 
necessary to suppress, for the reasons before stated. 



71 



No. 3. 

Copy of a letter from Mr. Corp to Mr. Hanrott, 
Solicitor to Sir Eyre Coote. 

Christ's Hospital, 24tli April, 1816. 
DEAR SIR, 

From the very unexpected publicity attending the trans- 
action which occurred here with Sir Eyre Coote, I have 
felt it correct in myself, as having the opportunity of 
seeing that gentleman at the time, namely, Saturday after- 
noon, the 25th November last, to declare, that as far as 
my knowledge or judgment of mankind can be considered 
accurate, I have no hesitation in expressing my conviction, 
that Sir Eyre Coote then laboured under a great degree 
of mental imbecility, or what I consider derangement of 
mind. This impression upon myself, if unimportant with 
others, is so strong, that when 1 was officially preparing 
a record to be considered by the Governors of this house, 
and entered upon their minutes, if approved, I incor- 
porated that circumstance, which, after discussion, was 
resolved to be expunged, from delicacy, united to the 
feeling which the Committee entertained, that as the oc- 
currence had been judicially settled, it was unnecessary 
for them to act further than take their own measures as 
to the return of the £1000, that beisig then their sole 
subject of consideration. 

I feel, under all the recent circumstances which have 
occurred, that I ought to communicate to you this my 
undisguised opinion, now that the absence of Sir Eyre- 
relieves me from the difficulty which existed when I ad- 
dressed him a few lines previous to his departure with. his 
family to the continent. And I am extremely desirous 
that you should be enabled to inform any friend of Sir 
Eyre's of these my sentiments, and which are confined to 



72 

the precise period of the transaction from which so much 
unhappiness to himself and family has resulted. 
I am^ dear sir. 

Very obediently yours, 
P. A. Hanrott, Esq. RICHARD CORP. 



No. 4. 



Copy of a letter from Thomas O'Reilly, Esq. to Co- 
lonel Bagwell. 

Gloucester Place, i24th April, 1816. 
DEAR SIR, 
The unfortunate occurrence at Christ's Hospital having 
been the subject of conversation at table where our friend 
Daly also was, I said I had long supposed there was 
something odd about Sir Eyre, from the following an- 
ecdote, which I then stated, though I had not before 
mentioned it out of my own family. Shortly after Sir 
Eyre left our street and went to reside in Hampshire, he 
dined at our house, and when we went up to the drawing- 
room and conversing on some indilFerent subject, he 
suddenly, though not violently, rose from his chair, placed 
his back flat agamst the wall, extended his arms against 
the wall also, and very calmly and distinctly said, " This 
is a wicked world, you are all damned, don't you know 
you are all damned?" At first 1 could scarcely refrain 
from laughing ; he immediately sat down again ; I looked 
at him very earnestly, and was beyond measure astonished 
that he looked just as if nothing had occurred, and re- 
mained two or three hours afterwards in familiar con- 
versation as usual: Mrs. O'Reilly and her sister Miss 
O'Callaghan were present, no body else; we agreed to 
say nothing about it, and concluded it was a sort of mo- 
mentary madness ; indeed, if you will excuse my candour, 



73 

I sincerely believe neither of the ladies mentioned would 
have felt very safe in his company, such was their impres- 
sion at the time. I can confidently assert it did not arise 
from having drank too much wine, as we were quite alone, 
and did not remain long at table. It made a strong im- 
pression upon me, partly from the very great uneasiness 
Mrs. O'Reilly laboured under lest I should mention it, 
she being at that time on intimate terms with and enter- 
taining a great regard for Lady Coote ; and as I was 
disposed to make a joke of it, she frequently reminded me 
that 1 must not mention it. 

I remain, dear sir, 

Your humble servant, 

THOMAS O'REILLY. 

P. S. There had been no conversation about religion 
to lead to this ejaculation of Sir Eyre's. The circum- 
stance occurred in the winter of 1810. 

The Right Hon. William Bagwell. 



No. 7. 

Declaration of Thomas Elford, Wax-Chandler. 

On Thursday, the 4th of May, 1814, was the first time 
I had any knowledge of Sir Eyre, wheji I waited upon 
him, respecting an order for some wax candles ; he very 
familiarly said to me. Did you know that gentleman 

that is just gone out ? — I said, no — he said, its Dr. , 

the physician, he has been to visit my daughter, who 
we are sadly afraid is going into a decline. I answered, 
I am sorry for it, Sir Eyre. On the 27th of February, 
1816, he came in a hackney coach to my house; after 
being in the shop some time, and I had shown him some 
^yax candles, a woman came into the shop, when he said 

L 



74 

to her immediately she came to the counter, " Now, my 
good woman, you cannot be attended to ; you must wait 
upon me, Elford." I called my lad up out of the cellar, 
and he served the woman. Directly after the woman was 
gone, he shut the shop door, and chained it ; he tried to 
lock it, but could not. He said that nobody else should 
come in. He afterward gave his order, and went away 
in the coach again. 

THOMAS ELFORD. 

The above letter was received by CoLonel Bagwell on 
Saturday the £7th of April, 1816, accompanied by 
the following note from General Sir John Cradock, 

G.C.B. 

Saturday. 
MY DEAR COLONEL BAGW^ELL, 

I SEND the statement from Elford, but he does not go 
near so far as he related to me ; but it seems, like all peo- 
ple of his class^ that he is afraid of being brought into a 
court. 

Yours, most truly. 

Right Hon. Colonel Bagwell. J. CRADOCK. 



No. 10, 

Letter from C. N. Pallmer, Esq. m. p. 

28, Gloucester Place, 3d May, 1816. 
MY DEAR SIK^ 

I HAVE known Sir Eyre Coote about ten years. Our ac- 
quaintance began in Jamaica, where he was Governor, 
and I held a professional situaticm under the crown ; and 
our intimacy began almost wdth oi ir acquaintance. I have 
transacted important business w'liiS ^vx\, and associated 
with him in the hours of convivialit V and domestic free- 



75 

dom, and I can declare upon my honour, that 1 never 
heard or saw any thing which could make me for a mo- 
ment believe him to be addicted to improper propensities. 
The impression on my mind always has been (confirmed 
by many collateral proofs), that when his mind was not 
worked up to subjects of importance, or under the in- 
fluence of some grand occupation and restraint, it fell, 
from a natural irregularity or disease, into that sort of 
want of controul, which, though it did not amount to 
decided insanity, had almost every feature of that dreadful 
malady. 

Believe me, dear sir, 
Sincerely yours, 

C, N. PALLMER. 

Right Hon. William Bagwell, &c. &c. &c. 



No. 12. 

Christ Church, 2d May, 1816. 
SIR, 
During my attendance on Sir Eyre Coote's family, 
whilst at Mudiford, 1 could not but notice great eccentri- 
city and flightiness in Sir Eyre Coote's conduct; which 
became more particularly conspicuous in the latter part 
of Miss Sarah Coote's illness (since dead), for whose 
recovery he used to express the most anxious solicitude, 
and to whom he appeared to be most affectionately 
attached. 

I have the honour to be, &c. 

ARTHUR QUARTLEY, Surgeon. 
Right Hon. William Bagwell, m. p. &cc. &c.&c. 



76 
No. 13. 

Fordingbridge, 1st May, 1816. 
SIR, 

From having several years attended Sir Eyre Coote's 
family iu my profession as surgeon and apothecary, I had 
frequent opportunities of noticing Sir Eyre Coote's con- 
versation and manners, which I could not help considering 
at times as both flighty and inconsistent. 

1 have the honour to be, sir, 
"V our most obedient, 

And very humble servant, 

PHILIP PARGETER. 

To the Right Hon. William Bagwell, m. p. 
16, Eoltou Street, Piccadilly, London. 



No. 14. 

Declaration of several Noblemen and Gentlemen. 

The undersigned having seen a letter from His Royal 
Highness the Duke of York, Commander in Chief, to 
Colonel Bagwell, bearing date the 22d of April, 1816, 
and having maturely and deliberately considered the na- 
ture of its contents, and more particularly that part 
wherein His Royal Highness has been graciously pleased 
to desire, " That Colonel Bagwell should use his judg- 
ment in the mode of furnishing any observations that the 
friends of General Sir Eyre Coote may have to offer on 
this melancholy case, in order that the whole may be 
considered before the adoption of any proceeding upon 
it," feel no hesitation in declaring it to be the firm con- 
viction of their minds, and upon their honours, founded 
upon a long acquaintance with Sir Eyre Coote ; and from 



77 

their having frequently observed in the course of that 
acquaintance, unaccountable eccentricities and follies in 
his manner and conduct^ that what passed at Christ's 
Hospital, as detailed in the copy of the examinations 
taken by the command of the Duke of York, proceeded 
from insanity alone, and therefore they cannot impute it 
to any vicious or criminal intention, or propensity what- 
ever. 



Henry, Norwich. 

William Bagwell, m. p. 

A. Bain, m. d. 

Suflblk. 

Charles M( gan, m.p. 

John Calcraft, m. p. 

C. N. Pallmer, m. p. 
Thomond. 

De Diinstanville. 
James Gordon, Hill Street. 
J. H. Mas.sy Dawson. 
John Pearse, 

D. Daly, Kent Lodge, Hamvell. 
Benjamin Bousfield, Shirley 

Hall, Twickenham. 
Angus Macdonald. 
George Purling. 
Charles Pieschall. 
Richard Borough, Bart. 
Charles Shaw Lefevre, M. P. 
Mountifort Longfield, m.p. 
Masseh Lopes, m. p. Bart. 
Marcus Lynch. 
P. A. Hanrott, Clapham. 



Kirkwall, m. p. 

J. Wickham, late 40th Regt. 

Edward Herrick, r. n. 

Daniel Callaghan, Jun. 

J. P. Beresford, Rear Admiral, 
Bart. M. p. 

George T. Beresford, Major- 
General, M. p. 

William Henry Keily. 

Walter Jones, late Colonel Lei- 
trim Militia. 

G. Doveton, m. p. 

H. Seymour Moore, m. p. 

Thomas O'Reilly. 

Frederick G. Carmichael, 

John Nesbitt. 

John Travers. 

Chidley Coote. 

Hardress Lloyd, M. p. 

Amelius Beauclerk, Rear Ad- 
miral. 

Thomas Bernard, m. p. 

J. M'Grigor, m. d. Director 
Gen. Army Medical Board. 



The signature of Sir James M'Grigor was affixed to 
the copy of this paper, the original having been sent in 
to the Commander in Chief. 



78 



No. 15. 

Declaration of several Magistrates of the County of 
Southampton. 

We whose names are hereunto subscribed, Magistrates of 
the County of Southampton, hereby certify, that we have 
for years past known, and are most of us intimately ac- 
quainted with Sir Eyre Coote; that in respect to his 
character we ever considered it as highly honourable, and 
believe him to be the last man who would be guilty of 
the abominable crime with which he is now charged. 
At the same time we think from his general levity of 
manner, and eccentricity of conduct (at times more like 
that of an insane person than otherwise), that the circum- 
stances, which to his misfortune occurred at Christ's Hos- 
pital, arose from the folly of the moment, without any 
previous thought, rather than from any intentional idea, 
or wilful design of immorality or criminality on his part. 



Charles Hulse. 

Stephen Tunks. 

Samuel Clapham. 

Robert Budden. 

Charles Shaw Lefevre, Acting 

Magistrate for Hants and 

Wilts. 



James Willis. 
B. Bullock. 
James Jopp. 
Percival Lewis. 
Charles Samuel Barbe. 
Henry Longden, Rector of the 
Parish of Rockbourne. 



I knew Sir Eyre Coote for a short time at Marseilles, 
and considered him as very unsettled in his disposition, 

H. NEALE. 



No. 16. 

Declaration of Thomas Grimston Estcourt, Esq. m.p. 

April 25th, 1816. 
Having examined the contents of the evidence collected 
by General Sir John Abercromby, and Major-Generals 



79 

Sir Henry Fane and Sir George Cooke, I am bound to 
declare, that in the transaction at Christ's Hospital, 1 
consider Sir Eyre Coote to have been so completely de- 
prived of judgment and mental controul as to have been 
reduced to a state of positive imbecility ; to which con- 
clusion 1 am, perhaps, the more disposed to come, from 
having (during an acquaintance of many years) observed 
and lamented, that in the ordinary transactions of life, his 
conduct has often been marked by a peculiar eccentricity 
and folly wholly unaccountable in a man deemed capable 
of at all times exercising a sound discretion. 

If to the contents of the examination above alluded to, 
I add the important information which I have this day 
received from those better acquainted with circumstances 
attached to Sir Eyre Coote than myself, I am led to 
indulge the hope that his late extravagant demeanour at 
Christ's Hospital (dispossessed as it is of any criminal 
act or apparent intention) may be attributed with justice 
to great imbecility y if not to insanity, rather than to any 
vicious propensity. 

THOMAS G. ESTCOURT, m. p. 



No. 17. 

Declaration of Alexander Adair, Esq. 

I HAVE observed frequent instances of unaccountable 
and eccentric conduct in General Sir Eyre Coote, though 
not any positive insanity; but coupling them with the 
known infirmities of his family, and knowing his high 
and manly spirit, I cannot but attribute his late indiscreet 
conduct to a temporary disorganization or derangement 
of his mental faculties. 

ALEXANDER ADAIR, 

Colonel Bagwell. 27th April, 1816. 



80 

No. 18. 

Declaration of Colonel Jones. 

1 HAVE known Sir Eyre Coote for many years ; I served 
in his brigade in die camp near Bandon, and afterwards 
in the town of Bandon the rest of the winter ; I declare, 
upon my honour, I never heard the slightest imputation 
against him of the nature alluded to. Since the period I 
mention, I have known him intimately, and never heard 
from any one, any thing injurious to his character as an 
officer and a gentleman, until within these few days that 
this unfortunate report was mentioned to me. 
12, Bolton Row, WALTER JONES, 

28th April, 1816. Late Colonel, Leitrim Militia, 



No. 19. 

Declaration of the Earl of Shannon. 

I HAVE been acquainted with Sir Eyre Coote several 
years, during that period I have frequently thought his 
manners odd, and I may say eccentric. The conduct im- 
puted to him at Christ's Hospital, if true, can I think be 
accounted for, only by temporary insanity. 

SHANNON. 



No. 20. 

Declaration of General Sir John Cradock, g. c. b. 

In the course of thirty years intimate acquaintance with 
Sir Eyre Coote, and upon service with him in different 
parts of the world^ I declare, upon my honour, I never 
heard the slightest circumstance of the nature in question 
against his character. 

J. F. CRADOCK, General. 

Hereford Street, 26th April, 1816. 



81 

No. 21. 
Declaration of Lieutenant-General the Earl of Cork. 

Hamilton Place, 26th April, 1816. 
In the course of twelve years intimate acquaintance with 
General Sir Eyre Coote, and upon service with him in 
Ireland, I declare, upon my honour, I never heard the 
slightest circumstance of the nature in question against 
his character, and always considered him in his family as 
a very amiable man^ a good husband and father. 

CORK, Lieut.-General. 



No. 23. 

Copy of a letter from Dr. Hume, Physician to the 
Forces, and Fellow of the Royal College of Phy- 
sicians, enclosing a Declaration. 

London, 29th April, 1816. 
MY DEAR SIR, 

You and Colonel Bagwell must be aware of the extreme 
delicacy which attaches to a professional man in delivering 
his opinion on individuals supposed to be afflicted with 
mental derangement. Nothing short of the imperative 
demand in this most distressing affair could have induced 
me to make such a statement, even under the conviction 
that it will only appear before a very limited tribunal*. 
I am, dear sir, 
Yours truly, 
D. Daly, Esq. THOMAS HUME. 



No. 24. 

Bolton Street, 2d May, 1816. 
MY DEAR SIR, 

As Sir Henry Torrens in his letter to me of the 26th 
ult. observes, " That no apparent advantage can attend 

* The declaration transmitted with this letter is suppressed 
in deference to the opinion of Dr. Hume. 

M 



;i.i^^ 



82 

the plea of insanity (as set up in the truly melancholy 
case of our afflicted friend, Sir Eyre Coote), while he was 
known to be conducting himself in the common relations 
of life with his usual sanity and decorum" — I particularly 
beg the favour of you to state your opinions to me in 
writing, upon that head, and to collect those of some 
medical gentleman, who has been much in the practice 
of attending upon insane persons. 

Ever, my dear sir, 
Most truly yours, 
Doctor Bain, Curzon Street. WM. BAGWELL, 

. / "' 



No. 26. 

Curzon Street, 2d May, 1816. 
MY DEAR SIR, 

In answer to your letter of this day, in which you state 
Sir Henry Torrens to observe in a communication to you 
of the 26th ult. " That no apparent advantage can at- 
tend the plea of insanity (as set up in the truly melan- 
choly case of our afflicted friend, Sir Eyre Coote), while 
he was know^n to be conducting himself, in the com- 
mon relations of life, with his usual sanity and decorum" — ■ 
I beg to remark (in compliance with your wish that I 
should state my opinion on this head), that I have known 
many instances, even of dangerous madmen, who could 
have stood a long cross-examination by the most acute 
persons without betraying a single symptom of their ma- 
lady. It is also common for a maniac to be insane in a 
single point, and sane in all others. But as an opinion 
on this subject will possibly come with greater authority 
from a physician, who is entirely conversant with cases in 
this particular line of practice, I will request the favour 



83 

of Doctor Willis, or Doctor Monro, to meet me at your 
house to-morrow or next day, to consider and give his 
opinion upon it. 

I am ever, my dear sir. 

Most faithfully yours, 
Right. Hon. Colonel Bagwell. A. BAIN. 

P. S. I understand that Doctor Willis is at Windsor, 
I shall therefore send to Doctor Monro. 



No. 26. 



The following questions were proposed for answers. 

1st. — Whether upon a review of all the circumstances 
attending the case of Sir Eyre Coote, that which occurred 
at Christ's Hospital, had not all the appearance of pro- 
ceeding from insanity ? 

Answer. — Most prohahly, 

2d. — Whether former visits made to the Hospital, and 
admitting the same occurrences to have taken place, did 
not arise from the same cause ? 

Answer. — Most prohahly. 

3d. — Whether the person in question, might not have 
been conducting himself in the common relations of life 
with apparent sanity and decorum, subsequent to the 
transactions alluded to ? 

Answer. — Certainly. 

THOMAS MONRO, m. d. 

May 5th, 1816. A. BAIN, M. D. 



No. 27. 



We the undersigned having been professionally consulted 
respecting the state of mind of Sir Eyre Coote, k.b. 
have examined the depositions laid before us, particularly 



#^ 



4 



of the circumstances which occurred at Christ's Hospital, 
as well as those which have come under the observation 
of various persons. These seem to be of so extraordinary 
and incopsistent a nature as to induce us without hesitation 
to declare it as our opinion, that the conduct and con- 
versation of the said Sir Eyre Coote, is occasionally 
influenced by a morbid state of mind, to which we can 
assign no other name than mental derangement. 

THOMAS MONRO, m. d. 

May 5th, 1816. A. BAIN, M. D. 



FINIS. 



Whittingham and Rowland, Printers, Coswell Street, Lomlui 



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